


Homestead

by Caslock



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Apocalypse, M/M, Multi, post apocalyptic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-16
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2017-11-12 06:20:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/487682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caslock/pseuds/Caslock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On December 21st, 2012, the world /did/ end, but not in the way anyone expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“The car is on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel  
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides  
And a dark wind blows  
The government is corrupt  
And we're on so many drugs  
With the radio on and the curtains drawn  
We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine  
And the machine is bleeding to death  
The sun has fallen down  
And the billboards are all leering  
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles  
It went like this:  
The buildings tumbled in on themselves  
Mothers clutching babies  
Picked through the rubble  
And pulled out their hair  
The skyline was beautiful on fire  
All twisted metal stretching upwards  
Everything washed in a thin orange haze  
I said, "Kiss me, you're beautiful -  
These are truly the last days"  
You grabbed my hand  
And we fell into it  
Like a daydream  
Or a fever  
We woke up one morning and fell a little further down  
For sure it's the valley of death  
I open up my wallet  
And it's full of blood”  
-Dead Flag Blues, Efrim Menuck

 

Scraps of tire were kicked aside by a dirty beat up shoe and skidded to a halt in front of a half eaten corpse. What it had been eaten by was not on the list of what Dave Strider wanted to know, so he just kept walking.

The term used is walking but a more accurate one would be meandering or stumbling about aimlessly.

That’s not quite true either.

This was the third ruined city he’d ambled through, completely aware of where he was going but still having no clue as to how he was going to get there. His brother lived almost one hundred miles away, at the end of a stretch that saw five towns that were definitively bumfuck and forgotten. Now, even more so. 

Dave had seen at least a week pass without sight of another human being and was thankful for it; the ones he had seen either wanted to kill him, steal his shit, or some other activity that had earned a quick stabbing in the suggestor’s gut courtesy a blade at least as old as the shoes on Dave’s feet. 

Ever since the Bomb (it wasn’t really a bomb, but the survivors had taken to calling it that) happened, a good guess of the planet’s population now would be a fourth of what it was before. Maybe less. Call it a purging, call it the reckoning, call it the shittiest thing since the poor god damn dinosaurs, but Dave saw no point in going dewy eyed over the philosophies of the ordeal. Just get to his brother and maybe they could… start over.

How fucking romantic.

For at least two weeks, there hadn’t been a television blaring unwanted opinions. There hadn’t been a wi-fi connection to bond with and there hadn’t been a working fridge. There was no school, no cubicle to waste a few hours in, no phones to tweet out the end of days.

On December 21st, 2012, the world did end, but not in the way everyone expected it to. Or rather, those that had expected it to were completely taken aback. Those that had scoffed at the ancient Mayans boiled their shoes and prepared their meals at broken tables in their demolished houses. Those who never gave a fuck, still didn’t. 

 

Back to the Strider though. 

As stated before, he had been making his way through the band of cities in order to reach his brother. At some point during the third city, which was once called Eustis, he had twisted his ankle and was now sporting an impressive limp. He had less than fifty miles to cover and with that in mind, Dave parked out in front of a gas station near an overpass that, if he so wished to follow, would have taken him straight to the town his brother lived. Dave was many things but he was not suicidal so he chose to stick to the back roads. 

Bandits, a cooler word for what were just gangs of looters and miscreants, had taken to roaming the highways in droves, fighting with each other and heckling stragglers. But again with the misleading words. Less heckling, more like pillaging and killing. Not really the same thing. Point of the story is this: Dave was not getting on that highway, no matter how many decrepit swords he had hidden away in his pack, which by the way was only two. 

Once in the blessed shade, he adjusted his gas mask and wished to all hell that he was inside so he could wipe his fucking face off and began rooting around in his bag for an ace bandage.

He didn’t really need the mask but it was helpful in a few ways. First off, no one knew what the hell was in the air anymore and when a crop of people began keeling over in Central Florida for no obvious reason, panic reigned and on with the gas masks it was. Second, no stand alone bandit really wanted any truck with a guy who was wearing a gas mask and wielding a huge sword. It just wasn’t done. Third, while Dave really wanted to just wear a pair of god damn sunglasses like he normally did to shield his already weak eyes from the sun, they didn’t stand up too well to the wear and tear of a dead world that was literally and figuratively out to get you. 

So he wore the mask and felt awesome at least sixty percent of the time. 

The bandage in place, Dave laced up his boots again and stood up gingerly, testing his weight and deciding he could handle it now. The bag thrown over his shoulder, he continued on. 

This was the longest stretch of highway before he reached his destination, the largest town he’d been in since the Reckoning Bomb Piece of Horseshit and to be honest it scared him a little. There had been no news coverage of the end of the world and as such, Dave had no idea what outside held for him. He had just calmly packed a bag and headed east. 

After an hour or two of walking, Dave’s ankle cried out in protest and pointed out a gas station up ahead that looked really nice to stop at and rest for a moment. Dave shrugged at it and pointed out that it was still daylight and as such they should keep travelling. It was at this point that he decided he should stop since now he was holding conversations with his own body.

The end of a fire was waving goodbye at the pumps, the pillars all burned down but the store itself was still miraculously intact, albeit looted to hell and back after a two day stay at a nice hotel. Sweltering, but nice. The thing that immediately caught his eye, however, was the figure huddled next to the ice machine. His muscled tensed for a moment before realizing that this couldn’t be a bandit. Or it might be. Like a piece of bait made to lure him in, catch him off guard. As he drew closer, Dave shook that thought out of his head; bandits didn’t shoot themselves in the leg, nor did they shoot their captors. 

Before his bag hit the ground, Dave was at the guy’s side, pulling him up and praying like fuck he wasn’t dead. If he was lucky, he’d have a real conversation with someone who wasn’t a dick head for the first time in weeks. 

“Hey buddy, come on, wake up.”

Dave coughed, not recognizing the voice that poured out of his throat like a truck full of rocks. The guy’s eyes were still closed, but as Dave put his fingers to the underside of his throat he felt a pulse. 

“Alright, good sign,” he grumbled, pulling them further into the shade and shaking the man a little. “Come on, man just fucking… god damn it.” Dave sank against the wall and pushed his mask up to rest on his head and scratched his sorry excuse for a beard. It had been a while since he could actually shave, so the four or five day growth was a mess of blonde, patchy stubble. Don’t even get him started on the mess that was his sideburns. 

Presently, he heard a strangled groan and looked over. The guy was stirring feebly, his bony hands flying immediately to his wounded leg and his eyes shot open. Dave stared for a moment before pushing him back down gently and trying to make his voice sound more soothing and less cement truck hitting every pothole from here to Ocala. 

“Welcome back,” he threw as a greeting, pressing a hand to the man’s forehead to feel for a fever. The man’s eyes darted back and forth, a blur of amber and alarming blue, apparently trying to assess if he was in the same place he passed out at or not before settling on Dave. 

A few less than comfortable moments flew by.

“Thinthe you haven’t killed me yet, hi.”

Dave beamed for no good reason and leaned back, rummaging through his bag again. 

 

“How long have you been here?” he asked, pulling out some gauze and tape. 

“I don’t know,” the man shrugged, rubbing his hands over his face, “what day ith it?” Dave snorted. 

“Sometime in January,” he replied, tearing off a bit of the man’s jeans to take in the damage, which thankfully, wasn’t as bad as he thought. The man’s eyebrow shot up and he merely hmmf’d, apparently deciding that January was a good month to wake up in. “Looks like the bullet grazed you. Lucky.”

“I had to make it theem like they hadn’t mithed,” he explained, smirking a bit and Dave kept on with that goofy fucking smile. It was infectious and soon the man was smiling with him, which turned into a shaky laugh as his head tilted back when Dave dabbed at the wound with peroxide. A few minutes passed which saw the man’s leg all patched up brand new. Dave leaned back and wiped his brow. 

“Sorry I don’t have a lollipop or a superhero bandaid for you,” he shrugged, pulling out two bottles of water and passing one to his patient, opening his and taking a long swig of it. The man held out a hand and flashed a set of teeth with a gap between the first two at Dave.

“Thollucth Captor.”

“Dave Strider.”

“Thankth.”

“Anytime.”

They lapsed into silence, sipping their water and thinking.

“Where you headed, Captor?” Dave finally asked, putting his empty bottle away and taking out a bag of beef jerky. The world had ended but at least there was still that one small comfort. He offered the bag to Sollux, who took some thankfully. 

“Wath going to Miami to catch a boat to the Keyth but,” he shrugged, chewing on a rather tough piece, “got shot. Had to rethink my planth.” Dave nodded. “What about you?”

“Orlando,” he replied, “that’s where my brother lives. Figured if anyone would know anything about how to survive in this it’d be him. If you wanted, you could hitch along with me. Get you out of the open, at least.” God damn Dave. He fleetingly wondered if he should go ahead and pick out invitations. Then he decided he was being overly dramatic about the whole thing and that he was just practicing post apocalyptic friendliness. Not surprisingly, Sollux’s eyes lit up and he smiled again.

“Theriouthly?” he said, “I mean you barely know me but, shit that’d be great.” He gestured to his small bag. “I don’t have that much to offer by way of repaying you but I’m a pretty good shot with this.” His hand pulled back his coat to show a small pistol, Dave couldn’t tell what it was from this angle but he raised his eyebrows all the same. 

“Alright,” Dave said finally, “welcome aboard. We can stay here for the night and we’ll head out tomorrow morning.” He looked up at the sky. It probably wasn’t even four yet but he wasn’t about to risk heading out in the dark with his own ankle and Sollux’s fucked up leg. So after a while, he moved them inside and spread them both out on a blanket. 

“We can take shifts watching the door, sound good?” Dave asked and Sollux nodded, stretching his wounded leg out and sighing.

“Real talk Thtr- Dave,” he began, leaning back on his elbows, “if you hadn’t showed up I’d be a dead man.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Dave protested, sitting beside him and pulling out his sword which Sollux eyed with interest, “your leg ain’t that bad. You could’ve made it to at least Mount Dora. I heard they have a good shelter there.” Sollux shrugged.

“Honethtly I wath waiting for the looters to come back and raid my corpthe,” he confessed, “thankfully a car pathed by right after they shot me tho their attention wath thufficiently diverted.” 

This must have happened recently because the day before, Dave had to stare in wonder at was probably the last car in the southern United States fly by him at incredible speeds. 

“It wasn’t a green hatchback was it?” he asked.

“Oddly enough, it wath,” Sollux said, tilting his head to look at Dave curiously. “Imagine that.” Dave hummed in agreement and they lapsed into silence, occasionally flicking their eyes at the door to look outside. The windows were grimy and smoke stained and the place was ransacked but to any outsider, it looked like a shit place to hide so they were in luck. 

The measly light filtering in through the windows began to fade and Dave wondered if it was a clear night or not. The two men had kept up a steady conversation as the sun passed across the ocean and soon, Sollux was yawning, his eyelids drooping more often than he could keep them open. Dave patted him on the shoulder, pushing him to lie down.

“Get some sleep, dude, I’ll keep first watch,” he commanded, leaning against a stand by the door and pulling out a book. Sollux mumbled something that agreed with the plan before promptly passing right on out. 

Dave felt sort of guilty for a moment as he allowed his eyes to rake over the guy with the light that was dragging ass getting out of the store. His features were defined and blurred and combined together looked like a sculpture. The gap in his teeth wasn’t visible now that he was sleeping. His hair was cut into a Caesar, inexplicably short around his ears and his sideburns extending to meet the clean growth along his jaw line. Wow fuck that guy for being able to hold a decent hair and beard cut after everything went to shit. 

The last of the light joined its parent past the tree line and Dave was left with the pale glow of the moon to rest on the page he’d left off in a book he’d read at least ten times.

 

The sun came back with a vengeance, plastering its rays along the inside of the empty store and generally being a bitch about everything, especially waking up Dave. He rubbed his eyes and groaned, his back stiff from falling asleep against a display case for chips. His hand flew to his sword as his eyes swept the store briefly, checking for any unwelcome visitors and finding only Sollux, still sleeping peacefully on the floor where Dave had left him. Dave’s shoulders relaxed and he yawned, sword dropping to his side as he scooted over to his bag and pulling out another water bottle. 

After a few minutes, he was decidedly awake and turned to lay a hand on Sollux’s shoulder.

“Hey Sol,” he started, stopping immediately because really, Dave. He coughed nervously and hoped the guy wasn’t awake yet. “Sollux. Wake up, man.” Sollux did this, but very slowly and regrettably. He looked around for a few moments before his eyes settled on Dave and he nodded, as if everything had fallen into place again. Shit, wouldn’t that be nice. 

“You think you can walk at all?” Dave asked after they had both sufficiently woken up enough to be aware that there was a world outside those doors. 

“Only one way to find out,” Sollux resigned. With Dave’s help, they found that he could, kind of. If he didn’t put that much weight on it and used Dave as a makeshift crutch, they could move at a pretty good pace. 

The highway saw two figures making steady progress. Once Sollux had gotten used to how much weight his leg could and couldn’t take, he didn’t need to sling his arm around Dave’s shoulder to walk anymore. Dave’s ankle was already feeling better and his limp had become less pronounced as the day wore on. 

Around midday, a couple of looters approached them warily. They soon vanished into an old abandoned building when Sollux pulled out his gun, which Dave could now describe as a Beretta, and fired a warning shot between the pair of idiots. 

The smirk Sollux wore should not be legal.

“Where’d you learn to shoot like that?” Dave asked as they passed Highway 414, thankful they didn’t have to brave that stretch of particular hell. 

“My dad taught me when I wath younger,” he explained, “thaid I’d need it for when the apocalypthe wath upon uth.” He let out a snort of amusement and Dave had to agree. With the ice broken for the day, they dissolved into a flurry of conversation.

“Tho why a thword?” Sollux asked after a particularly long winded conversation about the Mayan calendar. Dave absent mindedly patted at it and thought for a moment.

“Well my brother wasn’t as superstitious as your dad,” he started, “but he was always on about me bettering myself or some shit. He’d pop out from behind the sofa when I was a kid and tackle me to the ground. Eventually I learned the fine art of simply dodging.” Sollux grinned.

“Sounds like a great guy,” he said, barely suppressing a laugh. Dave pushed him lightly and laughed for him.

“Once you get past the fact that he’s basically a walking killing machine that exists for the sole purpose of getting shit done, he’s pretty cool,” Dave decided, mostly talking to himself at this point. In fact, he wouldn’t be surprised if his brother had half the fucking city under his control. “I think you’ll like him,” Dave finished, snapping out of his stupor.

“I’m sure I will,” Sollux replied, his mind on anything but Dave’s brother as he glanced over at him. 

With all of the stopping to check on various injured body parts, dusk found them near Apopka and ready to fall over from exhaustion.

“Let’s not sleep in the city,” Dave suggested, moving their path towards a small airport hangar, “from what I’ve seen, big cities mean big trouble.” Sollux nodded his agreement, apparently too tired to say anything.

The hangar was devoid of all aircraft and excruciatingly empty. They set out their things and camped up in a corner; taking shifts would be pointless tonight since neither of them could keep their eyes open.

“Don’t worry, I’m a light thleeper,” Sollux assured him, settling his head back against his bag and closing his eyes, folding his hands neatly across his chest. Dave wondered when the last time the guy had actually gotten a decent night’s sleep. This thought was soon pushed out of his head when worries of entering the city flew through his head instead, what he was going to say when he saw his brother. In his youth, they had been close, but since Dave had moved away they’d stopped talking as much. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d called.

Dave had already been on a trip today and didn’t need to go on one that involved guilt, so he decided to pull his coat around him tighter and fall asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Sollux Captor never had the easiest of lives.

Despite it all, to his credit, he had never bitched about it, even now when the world was absolutely and completely over. Mostly. There had been the occasional friend that had listened to his bitching that was never really bitching, more of a rant about how everything was unfair but really everyone should just learn to accept it because that’s life. 

His friends never stayed around long.

Before the sun had fully risen the duo were back on the road, their limps slowly subsiding. Sollux’s leg still hurt like a bitch but at least he could put some weight on it now. He looked over at Dave, who had switched out his mask for a pair of beat up sunglasses and was walking almost normally. Sollux adjusted his own glasses, which unfortunately couldn’t block out the sun, and squinted to see further ahead. 

Before everything, he’d been after himself to get a new pair since his left eye had been slowly degenerating but had put it off. Well. 

 

“So from whence do you hail?” Dave said suddenly, making Sollux jump a little. He coughed a bit before speaking since his throat had gone dry. No reason. Throats go dry all the time why make a big fucking deal about it.

“Gainethville,” he replied, frowning a little because it was truly a horrible place. Well it wasn’t horrible per se, just very, very weird. He hadn’t lived there that long, but even so it had never felt right. Dave shook his head and whistled. Sollux laughed. “What? It’th not that bad. Granted I wathn’t there long enough to form a dethent opinion but thtill.”

“Must have been hell during football season,” Dave pointed out, getting a groan from Sollux in return. 

“What about you?” he asked, keeping his eyes firmly on the road ahead, “you theem to know thethe roadth well.” 

“Ocala,” Dave replied, “not that far away from you, actually.” Sollux nodded and chewed at the inside of his cheek.

“Before I moved to Gainethville, I lived in Perry,” he started. Dave looked over at him curiously. 

“I’ve lived in Florida my whole life and I have no idea where the fuck that is.”

“Ecthactly,” Sollux groaned. He adjusted his pack and idly wondered why he was still talking. “I moved a couple yearth ago. Load of redneckth who thtill thought the womenfolk and them negroeth-“ he made his voice as southern as possible here, “needed to get back in the kitchen and field, rethpectively. People up there… let’th jutht thay not too many of them wanted to be friendth with me.” His smile was kind of like a smile except it was the opposite of what a smile was supposed to be.

“I can get that,” Dave said sadly, stealing a glance sideways. “Sorry people are piles of shit.” Sollux merely shrugged.

“Well hopefully they’re all dead now,” he sighed as Dave chortled. 

Apopka came and went, tame for the most part. The people they did see left them alone thanks to Sollux’s trusty flashing of his gun. Dave had never liked driving through this particular town. It could have been due to the only time he had driven through it was during the holidays, when everyone else was driving through it too. Also it smelled a bit like wet dog and hope on its deathbed, a very peculiar smell that couldn’t actually be described so Dave didn’t know why he was using it. 

It wasn’t unusual to see cars piling on the sides of the roads, toys that kids got tired of about a month after they received them because they weren’t useful anymore. Some were charred black and were missing doors, others clean as a whistle, save for the inch of dust on their hoods. What was unusual was the purr of a motor ahead of them and the vehicle it belonged to. 

Sollux was certain the supply of gasoline was gone, either from gas stations being set aflame or just from people using their cars to get as far away from big cities as they could the first few days after the Bomb. Seeing a car now was not only rare, but probably dangerous. The only people who still drove were bandits, keeping within city limits for the sole purpose of terrorizing survivors. 

Dave pulled them off the road a little when it came into view, making their way towards it using the cover of deserted vehicles. 

“Hey that’th the car that pathed by after I got shot,” Sollux pointed out, his voice an unneeded whisper. 

“Yeah I remember it too,” Dave agreed. 

As they drew closer, they could see two figures walking around the car, which had its hood up and it was Dave’s ancient aunt every time she came to visit during his childhood. Smoking, that is. Sollux tossed around different scenarios in his head about approaching them. A high pitched voice could be heard coming from the car and while Sollux couldn’t make out any words, he could guess they were upset. 

“Should we help them?” he asked. Dave frowned and stopped, holding his arm out to catch Sollux in the chest. 

“I think we can hold our own against two,” he reasoned, coming up from his hunched position and looking at Sollux, raising his eyebrows. Sollux shrugged and drug his hand across his forehead, putting his other hand on his hip.

“Let’th thave the day then.”

Dave grinned and together they made their way back onto the road, approaching the figures warily. When they were close enough, Dave called out.

“Need some help?”

Immediately, the people rounded on them, one drawing a gun and Sollux was pretty sure where it was trained. Between the eyes was his best guess. They raised their hands in unison and stopped walking abruptly.

“Who the fuck are you nimrods?” came a voice, the high pitched one Sollux had heard earlier and whose owner currently had a mark on his head. He could now see the people clearly, two women who looked like they could be sisters. The one who wasn’t holding a gun was holding a cane but still looked ready to kick his ass with it. 

“We’re jutht pathing through,” Sollux tried, taking a small step forward. It earned him a cock of a trigger. 

“Well you can pass on through that way,” she said, subtly moving in front of her companion. 

“Looks like your radiator’s busted,” Dave pointed out, lowering his hands a little. The woman hesitated for a moment before her eyes flickered to Sollux’s and Dave’s waists, which held their weapons before scoffing and putting her gun away, turning around again to look at the mess that was her car. 

“Just move the fuck along, we can deal with this ourselves,” she grumbled and her friend smacked her in the shin with her cane.

“Let them help, Vris,” she pleaded, leaning on the side of the car, “they sound nice.” 

“Everything sounds nice to you now shut up and let me fix this.”

Dave and Sollux moved closer now that the threat of being shot in the ribs had disappeared. Up close, the pair’s similarities were more pronounced and they could have been sisters. The woman working on the car had long black hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and glasses akin to Dave’s, except they looked newer and bigger. The girl with the cane had puffier hair, pulled back into a neat bun at the crown of her head, but the same color and wore slimmer glasses and brighter clothes. She stared into nothing and tapped her feet to the same thing.

Dave leaned on the front quarter of the car and examined the engine. He was wrong about it smoking; it was definitely steam coming out of it which was a shit load better than smoke in Sollux’s opinion. Not that he knew the first thing or the second thing about cars.

“Got any duct tape?” Dave asked as Sollux hung back, moving to the other side of the car to peer up and down the highway in case any visitors came to call. He snorted at the prospect of fixing a car with duct tape but spend enough time in bumfuck nowhere to know that anything could be fixed with enough of it.

“It’s in a black case in the truck,” the girl replied, removing a bandana from her back pocket and attempting to screw off the lid to the radiator. A few choice words accompanied this action.

Dave came back with the tape and walked around to her, spreading his arms a bit as if to ask ‘do you mind?’. It looked like she did mind, a lot, but moved aside all the same. 

“Here hold this,” Dave instructed, gesturing to a part that Sollux couldn’t name if someone had a gun to his head. Watching Dave work was transfixing and soon Sollux forgot to keep an eye on the road, since it was too busy running up the curve of Dave’s back and that’s just about enough of that. After a few minutes it had stopped smoking and they threw down the hood, wiping their hands on their jeans. 

“Thanks,” she said finally, taking her hair down and fixing it back up into a tighter bun. 

“Where you two headed?” he asked, pulling out a few water bottles and offering them. She denied and walked to her car, pulling out two of her own and handing one to her friend. 

“Merritt Island,” she responded, taking a long dram, “it’s a little ways past Orlando and I’m pretty sure the bridge is out but hey. It’s our best shot.” Dave nodded.

“Well hopefully this will get you there,” he said, giving the car what Sollux could guess was a dubious look. “If it doesn’t, you’ll have to hoof it.” The girl swore under her breath before crossing her arms. 

“Name’s Vriska,” she threw her head towards the other girl, “that’s my sister Terezi.”

“Dave,” he offered, holding out his hand. Vriska turned to Sollux expectantly.

“Thollucth,” he said lowly and hated everything about meeting new people. He should probably just give people his last name from now on. It’d make him sound cooler at least. Vriska didn’t give him any shit for it however, probably because she felt his pain. 

“Well boys, are you headed our way?” she asked. 

“Come to think of it we are,” Dave said, “we’re actually just going to Orlando.” Vriska laughed and shook her head sadly.

“Not our way.”

“You just said…”

“Listen man, you couldn’t pay me enough to drive through that place,” she cut in. Behind her, Terezi nodded and made her way towards them, tapping at the ground but still looking like she knew exactly where she was going. 

“I don’t think they know Vris,” she said, “I mean, we only know out of sheer luck.” Her sister tilted her head understandingly. 

“The whole place has been taken over by a hoard of bandits,” Vriska said, “seriously they own the place. It’s fucking ridiculous. In a matter of weeks they managed to turn a decent town into their own personal hell. I’d find a better refuge if I were you two.”

Dave was silent for a long time so Sollux picked up the slack.

“Well how bad are we talking?” he asked, “do they have a monarch who leads the matheth into battle or ith it jutht a bunch of thmall time athholeth who’ve banded together?”

“I’ll go with dictator,” Vriska grumbled, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. Terezi gently tapped at her leg until she finally sighed and gave her the lit one and pulled out another. “I don’t know much but what I do know is that if you try to enter that city you will be captured and I can only guess what kind of fun things they have planned.” 

“We’ll be fine, thanks,” Dave finally said, apparently revived from his stupor. Vriska shrugged.

“On your own head be it,” she said, flicking her cigarette to the side and walking back to the car, her sister’s arm locked in hers. “Thanks again for the help!”

The men raised their arms in response and watched them drive away, the engine puttering but at least working for the time being. He silently wished them luck. 

“Did you thtill want to go?” Sollux finally asked.

“I don’t know where else I would go,” Dave said, honestly at a loss as to what he’d do if he didn’t. They stared at the road for a long time before he spoke again. “You don’t have to come with me, you know.” 

“I don’t know where else I’d go,” Sollux answered truthfully. He had fully intended to make it to the Keys by the end of February, figuring an island would be a good place to go. The women seemed to think it was a good idea. He had lived alone for years and now that he’d found someone who actually wanted him to stick around, Sollux wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back to that. Of course, he hated the idea of dragging someone down, too.

Life was proving to be the most difficult of things.

“If you’ll have me,” he added. With the glasses on, Dave was next to impossible to read, so Sollux just stood there and studied the lines around his mouth, which were starting to pull up into a smile. 

“As long as you keep saving my ass, Hawkeye,” he laughed, setting off again down the road. 

“I take it you’re thtill going to find your brother?” Sollux asked after a while. The sun was still out and burning down on them and the road was wavering in front of them like they were looking at it through a wall of water. Apparently, no one had given Florida the memo that it was, in fact, January therefore it shouldn’t be this god damn hot. Perhaps the poles had switched and now Australia was covered in snow while the western hemisphere burned away. It was surprising the atmosphere was still intact. 

“I have to,” Dave replied, “I meant what I said before, I don’t know what my other goal would be.” His limp had almost completely disappeared and he held himself higher as he walked. “He’ll know what to do.” Sollux didn’t press it. Dave seemed to hold his brother to a strange degree, somewhere between ‘you’re the only person who’s opinion I give a shit about’ and ‘thanks for making me live in your shadow my whole life’. Of course this was all speculation and Sollux had no plans on making Dave confirm any of this. 

“Thothe women were probably right, Dave,” Sollux started, “we have no idea what we’re walking into. We could get caught the thecond we croth the thity limit.” Growing up, people had accused him of being negative or having a pessimistic outlook on life that would never get him anywhere. Which was funny because now he was alive and everyone who’d held that belief was rotting in a ditch somewhere and definitely not in heaven or anything.

“We can hold our own,” Dave countered simply as Sollux rolled his eyes. “Think about it man, you’re a good shot and I can fight off a hoard of diamonds with this blade.”

Sollux had nothing to say to this save for a shake of his head and they continued on towards the once place no one in their right mind should go.

As the sun started to set, they found themselves at the edge of the city, staring up at a crumbling overpass with the dying light from the sun flickering behind it. It had been a month since the letters had light up and it was sort of disheartening to see falling apart so easily. Just like everything else in the world. Behind it, an orange haze lit up the horizon and it had nothing to do with the sun. 

“I know it’s a deserted highway and everything,” Dave began, slowing his pace until he had stopped completely and bent down to retie his laces, “but we should probably find a place to crash for the night. I don’t really want to brave the city when it’s dark out.” Sollux stopped a few feet in front of him and removed his glasses to attempt cleaning them with his dirty shirt.

“Well I don’t know,” he said, squinting through them and deciding glasses were bullshit during the apocalypse, “it might be eathier for uth to thneak through if it’th dark.” Dave finished and looked up at him, pulling down his cuffs and frowning in thought.

“You sayin’ we should just duck behind dumpsters and shit?” he laughed, standing up and regarding Sollux with a curious look. 

“I’m thaying,” he said, holding up his glasses again and thowing them across the ocean where they sunk to the cold depths before sliding them back on his face and huffing at the streaks, “they’re bound to be out during the day, tho if we go through at night, we’ll have a better chanthe at not being theen.” Dave hmm’d and brought out some water, sipping on it thoughtfully. 

It made sense in his head, people still not being nocturnal, but then again they weren’t even sure what these bandits did so predicting their sleep schedule was pointless. Sollux scanned the horizon again as the sun sunk lower and tried not to think about how much he’d missed the colors that were painted in the sky. 

Of course it’d still make sense for them to use the cover of darkness in their trek through the city; in daylight they’d be easier to spot. Dave ran his hand through his hair and stashed his water bottle away before turning to face Sollux again.

“I think our risk of getting jumped is the same whether we go tonight or tomorrow,” he said finally, “and I’d rather them confront us while we’re awake rather than while we’re conked out in a car somewhere.” Sollux nodded. He was more than a little apprehensive about facing bandits again but supposed it was necessary. 

“Where doeth your brother live?” Sollux asked as they began walking again. 

“Other side of town near Winter Park,” Dave responded, “we can hug the north edge of the city to get there. Hopefully the raiders stick to the inner parts. Leave us alone.” 

They walked in silence for a while as they exited the highway and began to tread on smaller roads, ones with names and burned down houses. Sollux had been to Orlando once and when he did, he hadn’t stayed long. He remembered tall buildings and the way it constantly smelled like oranges and beer but that was about the limit to his memory. Still though, he could tell it was dead now. Not dead, quite, just reanimated into something it was never supposed to be.

“Ith your brother the only part of your family down here?” Sollux asked, breaking the silence.

“Yeah just him,” he responded after a moment. When Sollux stole a glance, he noticed Dave’s sunglasses were tucked up in his hair and he was rubbing his eyes. He didn’t fix them back in their place when he was done and Sollux had to look away. Dave’s eyes were blinding. Deciding that family wasn’t really the subject to be talking about, he clammed up again, unsure of what topics they could discuss anymore. Their choices had slimmed down quite a bit. Luckily, Dave was there to help out.

“So how come you trusted me so quickly?”

Okay maybe not.

“What, um,” Sollux tried to say. “What do you mean?”

“Well you seem like a smart guy but you didn’t stab me in the gut with the barrel of your gun the second you opened your eyes.”

Sollux chewed on his lip for a moment because honestly he had no idea what the answer to this question was.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged, “you didn’t have a weapon and you jutht. Looked tho contherned about my well being.” A rather tame way to put it but really it had only been two days. The first thing Sollux had seen when he woke up was a gorgeous face etched with worry for someone he didn’t know. The second thing he had seen was someone who didn’t know him using precious supplies to patch up his leg, a careless accident on Sollux’s part so really no one should be helping him anyway. The third thing wasn’t anything Sollux was going to be pondering anytime soon because what with the world at its end and the two of them working so well together after a matter of a day or so and throwing themselves into a highly dangerous situation would prove to serve no good.

So that was all he said and Dave sort of accepted it.

They were both so deep in thought that neither of them noticed the fact that they were being flanked by a group of unruly, masked bandits until a wall of flame roared up in front of them.

Sollux had just enough time to grab Dave by the collar and sent them both flying behind a car as the group moved out from the shadows. Sollux drew his gun and poked his head out from safety for a moment. 

“Lookth like three on the left, five on the right,” he said, turning to Dave, who had drawn his sword. He popped up again and fired of a few shots before returning breathless.

“Two on the left, three on the right.”

Dave grinned and tried not to swoon. 

“I feel pretty useless just sitting here,” he said, loud enough for Sollux to hear him since the roar of the flame was getting closer. 

“Don’t worry,” Sollux countered, moving to the edge of the car again, “you thit there and look pretty. I’ll take care of thethe athholeth.” Before he could do anything of the sort however, another Molotov went off and sent them both rocketing backwards into the open. As gunfire rang out, they scrambled to safety again but found themselves on opposite sides of the street. 

The bandits took advantage of this and separated. Two of them moved around Dave’s shelter with arms ready but Dave stood up and held his sword out to raucous laughter. It was quickly stifled by a slice to the throat. At the sight of the crimson river running down his companion’s chest, the remaining bandit let out a howl and raised his gun. 

Sollux forgot about the fact he was about to get killed at least three different times and whipped around, training his sights on the aggressor and hitting him dead on. Dave looked around in time to see Sollux get grabbed by a strong arm and a gun making its way up to rest at his skull.

“Sol!”

Dave advanced, sword in front of him before the bandit cocked the trigger and tightened his grip around Sollux’s throat. 

“Drop it,” came a growl, muffled by the cylinder of his gas mask. Dave did as he was told and Sollux reluctantly threw his gun to the ground.

“Good dog.”

Although this pissed him off, Dave snarled exactly like one.

“Whatever you fucks want, just let him go alright?” he said levelly, trying to not notice the pleading look on Sollux’s face. 

“You killed a couple of my men,” he said, ignoring Dave entirely. “Those were good men. Hard to find good men these days.” Dave rolled his eyes and spread his arms slowly. So much for heading through the city at all now. A part of him wondered if his brother would show up and save the day. 

A low noise reached their ears and everyone looked up at the source, an old green hatchback that was barreling towards them. Dave blinked a few times and risked a glance at Sollux whose expression was too difficult to read in the fading light. When it screeched to a halt, the women they had helped earlier in the day stepped out and walked towards them. 

Dave straightened and heard Sollux cough. 

“Alright boys break it up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yep heres more oh what a cliffhanger
> 
> if you want to get updated more and see some shitty art you can follow me on tumblr
> 
> iwentnorthdowneasthastings.tumblr.com


	3. Chapter 3

"I thought I told you assholes to stay out of the city."

Dave almost pissed himself but decided against it because now was not the time. Now was the time for gawking stupidly as the women he helped earlier sauntered towards him, wrenching Sollux from the goon's grip and smacking him on the head. The masked man slunk away, grumbling to himself.

"And I thought you were headed to Merritt Island but it looks like it's story time," Dave said, feeling it was safe enough to rush to Sollux's side and eyeing his throat for any possible wounds. It passed the test and he turned back to Vriska, who was now shooing the remaining bandits away and giving them useful tips as to where to store their guns.

"I don't owe you a god damn story," she replied. Her sister caught up and was now rummaging through the dead men's pockets, cackling at the things she found, none of which were useful. Vriska moved closer to Dave and suddenly narrowed her eyes. "What'd you say your name was?"

Dave immediately tensed and drew himself up as Sollux looked between them anxiously. 

"Dave."

"Your last name, idiot."

"...Strider?"

Her eyes widened and she let out a short scream of a laugh and turned around to her sister, who had straightened up at the name, mirroring Vriska and pulling out her gun to train on the two men. Dave groaned.

"Listen ladies I know I'm famous and everything but lets try to hold the autographs for later, alright?" he said, subtly backing away which proved to be a useless gesture. Still, he ended up shielding Sollux a little and that was good enough for him. 

"Oh shit we stumbled on the greatest treasure we could find, Ter!" 

"I take it you know my brother."

"Know him?" Terezi laughed, "more like bust his ass on a daily basis."

Vriska jerked her gun and the men took it as a hint to move towards the car, climbing in the back seat awkwardly and settling in as best as they could. '93 Honda Hatchbacks were notorious for having the smallest back seats known to man. 

"Give me your guns," the older woman ordered before she got in and Dave would have taken the opportunity to make a break for it but there had already been at least three million sights trained on him today and to be honest he was just really tired. Plus, it sounded like he was a bargaining chip and dead bargaining chips didn't really bargain very well. Disarmed and holed up in a mess of random items, the women climbed into the car and started it, slowly making their way through the wreckage of the city. 

"We going to Disney World?" 

"Shut the fuck up."

So much for conversation. 

The trip seemed much longer than it was, mainly because they couldn't drive over fifteen miles an hour and constantly had to stop to make way for hoardes of bandits that had taken to partying in the middle of the street. Vriska shot a few in annoyance, but for the most part, they gave the shitty car a wide berth. Dave took a wild guess that the dictator she had previously referred to was herself. Awesome.

In a fit of gusto and possibly madness, Dave reached over silently and grabbed Sollux's hand, squeezing lightly and keeping his eyes carefully diverted. Miraculously, he felt a squeeze back, much tighter than his own, and risked a look over. Bad idea. The guy was actually smiling. In the middle of the most dangerous situation Dave could have possibly fucked his way into, without a plan and his gun, he was just smiling vaguely and holding his hand and scooting the slightest bit closer.

If it hadn't been the apocolypse and if the two women in front of him weren't aimed to kill him and if he had been the slightest bit braver, Dave would have kissed him square on the god damn face. 

None of these things were true and the rest of the trip snaked on until fucking finally, they were parked outside a familiar apartment complex and Vriska pulled them out of the car. She shoved them forward, gun raised and looked up towards what Dave could only guess was apartment 413. 

"Come on out, dickbag!"

____________________________________

For a wild moment, Dave thought his brother wasn't home. He wasn't sure if the thought upset him or relieved him. The apartment building was miraculously unharmed and in the fading light, he could see Dirk’s flat window lit up with a faint glow. After a few minutes, said window flew open and an object flew out. A wild suspicion told Dave it was a grenade and he made to move in front of Sollux until it hit the ground, a wave of flame spilling across the ground a few feet in front of Vriska, who just rolled her eyes.

“I wouldn’t do that when your brother is standing right here!” she cried, “you don’t want to lose anyone else do you?”

They didn’t have any family down here and Dave wondered who she was talking about. The thought was blown from his mind as a familiar face popped out of the window, gun first.

“Dave?”

“Dirk!”

He was surprised to find himself two feet closer to the wall of flame and Sollux’s hand around his wrist, pulling him back and shaking his head. Dave reluctantly took a step back.

“You ready to play nice?” Vriska asked, swinging her gun around to train on Dave. 

“I told you all I want is your sorry fucking excuse for an army to stay away from my complex,” came his voice.

“Too bad,” she shrugged, cocking the hammer back, “I hold the chips here, Strider, you don’t get to make deals.”

His face disappeared and after a few minutes, Vriska was tapping her foot. A door slammed somewhere in front of them and Dave was practically dancing on the spot. Dirk came into view, doing nothing short of sauntering to the other side of the fire, pulling his mask off and Sollux swallowed hard. Same face, except taller, his arms more defined, hair styled differently and he could see bright orange eyes even with the distance and the darkness and it could have just been the fire but Sollux was pretty sure the man was just a fucking god. 

“You’re going to give me my brother and go bother some other complex because you’re not getting this one.”

Dirk’s voice was much lower now that he wasn’t shouting and Dave had never been happier to hear it. 

“Oh my god are you actually serious right now?” she laughed, pulling her gun up again and firing it. 

Dave spun and Sollux caught him, laying him on the ground gently. He held up a hand to Dirk as the taller man snarled and made to run over. 

“Don’t fuck with me Str-“

A loud crack rang out and Terezi fell to the ground as a face appeared from the window of 413.

“I’m sorry don’t fuck with /who/, bitch?”

Vriska screeched and dropped her gun, rushing to her sister’s side, who was holding her shoulder and waving her away. 

“Roxy I’ll fucking kill you!”

Another shot and cracks spiderwebbed out from a hole in their windshield.

“Can’t hear you over my bad ass gun!”

Vriska growled and pulled Terezi up, moving them to the car and climbing in.

“This isn’t over asshole!” was all they heard before the car squealed away. 

After a few moments, Dirk rushed over and knelt by his brother’s side.

“What’d she hit, is he okay?”

“He’th fine, she just grathed hith shoulder,” Sollux replied, hauling Dave up to his feet.

“I’ve taken beatings way worse than this, Bro, you know that,” he said, squaring his shoulders as best as he could and fixing his gaze. Dirk tried not to smile, he really did.

He pulled his younger brother into a hug, careful not to hit his wound as Sollux looked between them and picked up their bags.

“You losers just gonna stand there hugging all day or are you gonna come up and show me who that fine ass young fellow is?” 

Dirk looked up to where Roxy was waving and seemed to snap out of whatever reverie he had been in. 

“Come on let’s go up,” he said, leading them to the stairwell. 

Once inside there was a flurry of movement, settling the newcomers in and fixing up Dave’s shoulder before introductions were given. Dirk stood facing the group of people that he’d holed up in his flat as Sollux fiddled with Dave’s bandages on the couch, even though they were perfectly fine. It was actually really stupid how worried he was.

“Everyone, this is my fabled brother Dave and his-“ he looked back for a moment and Dave shrugged, “-his companion Sollux.”

They all waved to them and Dirk continued.

There was Roxy Lalonde, master markswoman with her M110 SASS and sat on a recliner sipping a martini and wondering how bright blue nails looked against her dark skin, to which she thought, fuck it I look good.

Jane Crocker looked similar to Roxy, except her hair was shorter and curled around her rounded face to rest near her chin. Oval glasses framed her soft eyes and she eyed Sollux nervously as he fucked with the bandages she had carefully placed on Dave’s shoulder a few minutes prior. 

The tall kid with glasses and goofy ass smile was named Jake English and he bore a striking similarity to Moss from the IT Crowd. His shorts were shorter than his hair and guns were strapped to literally every inch of him. 

Dave and Sollux nodded to each of them in turn before Dirk flopped down between Jake and Roxy, tossing his glasses aside and taking out a bottle of water. The light Dave had seen earlier were candles fixed all along the walls in little trenches made out of rectangular herb garden trays. Tiny metal parts were scattered across a table in the open dining room, almost completely covering a huge map of Florida, which was strewn with markings. When Dave asked about it, Dirk shook his head tiredly.

“We’ve had a long day little man,” he yawned, ensuring that at least half the other people in the room did so too. “Tomorrow we’ll give you the run down on what we’ve learned, alright?” 

Dave nodded and stretched and watched as Roxy and Jane crossed the room to disappear down the hallway into their room. Jake hung back and waited for Dirk to finish settling Dave and Sollux on the couch. The two men disappeared to their separate rooms and Sollux heard low talking before a door shut and a loud sigh. He looked over at Dave, who just shrugged.

“Man my brother’s love life is none of my god damn business, you know?” he said lowly, throwing his arms behind his head. He had taken his shirt off a while ago for Jane to patch him up and never thought to put it back on. The couch was big enough for them both, but it was a tighter fit than the backseat of Vriska’s car and again, Dave wasn’t really complaining. 

“You didn’t tell me your brother built shit,” Sollux said after a while, caught off guard at how loud his voice was now that it was completely silent. Soft light casted stretched shadows across their blanket and the curve of Dave’s jaw and Sollux shifted nervously. 

“I did too,” was Dave’s reply, opening his eyes a little and curving the corner of his mouth up. It was difficult to see Sollux in this light but he could still make out his stupidly straight sideburns and the glow of his eyes. Sollux let out a quiet chuckle.

“You told me he built shit, not fucking robotth.”

“Well his robots /are/ shit.”

“You are the rudetht.”

“You love it.”

The wide grin slowly slid off of his face and it was difficult to maintain eye contact but since Dave wasn’t looking away, why the hell should he. 

With startling grace, Sollux found himself clambering across the oversized couch, the blanket thrown to the side and falling into Dave’s arms which had already started wrapping around his waist. At first the kiss was messy and uncoordinated, a sort of holy-shit-you-almost-died-and-I-never-got-to-do-this kiss and once they had gotten past that it was deep and desperate and a sprawl of limbs struggling to touch every single inch they could reach.

“Shit Sol where the hell is this coming from?” Dave managed to ask after prying his lips away, only to have the other man latch himself to the skin at his throat, sucking lightly and burying a hand in Dave’s mess of hair. 

“Shut up,” he growled. Dave’s chest shook lightly as an arm snaked up to pull Sollux’s shirt off. He was annoyed at the short distraction but purred in approval when Dave pulled him down to take his turn at the elegant neck, stretching up as Sollux tilted his head and fisted his hands tighter. Dave unsuccessfully bit back a moan at the pain and rolled their hips together. “I lied. Don’t thtop talking.”

Again with the low gravelly laughter. 

“I gotta say man, you’re pretty god damn hot firing that gun of yours.” 

“Well shit not /that/ loud, dumbath.”

“What are we, middle schoolers? Trust me, as light of a sleeper as he is, my brother ain’t gonna wake up because of my dulcet tones.”

“Yeah and what about everyone elthe?”

“They should be thanking you for yours.”

A harsh bite to Sollux’s neck made him moan louder than he wanted to and he fixed Dave with a deadly glare.

“See?”

Sollux shut him up nicely. His tongue darted out to drag across Dave’s lower lip quickly before sliding over his own, making the man breathe deeply through his nose and sliding a hand down to grab his ass and jesus fuck what a nice ass it was. 

Dave actually whined when Sollux broke away to leave a trail of kisses along his jaw, down his neck and gingerly pressed against his bandaged shoulder and Dave felt a wave of softness wash over him at the gesture. It hit him that this was the same man he’d met two days ago, the one who had put his life in danger already to save him, and the look on his face as he regarded Dave’s wound made him question when the fuck his life had suddenly downed three bottles of vodka and was now puking on the sidewalk. He shook his head clear when Sollux moved lower, kissing across his chest and down his stomach and grasping his hips firmly with long, skinny fingers and fumbling with the workings of his jeans.

“You’re okay with this?” Dave asked, his breath catching in his throat and his eyes at least a thousand shades darker. 

“What, you think I’m moving too fatht?”

“I mean /I/ don’t think you are but it’s-“

“End of the world, Dave.”

He sighed and nodded.

“End of the world.”

He made quick work of Dave’s jeans and before they could fall to the floor Sollux was back between his legs, pressing his mouth against the bulge in his boxers. 

“Fuck, Sol-“

Sollux smiled at the name and rolled his hips down into the couch, desperate for any sort of contact and pushed the remaining fabric out of the way. Dave gasped as he hit the air and looked back towards the rooms, an old reflex he thought had died since he’d moved out of his brother’s house but there you go. When he settled back Sollux’s eyes were fixed on him with a look that should be illegal in all fifty states and Dave outright growled. Legitimately growled. Full on, predator in the god damn woods growl. Point made.

Sollux seemed to like it and darted his tongue out to press against the base of Dave’s cock, licking upwards along the shaft and taking him in one motion, making Dave gasp and bite his lip hard enough to swell and throw his head back against the cushions. A smugger face has never been recorded in history. Fingers wrapped around the base and he moved off for a moment to pump shallowly, clearing his throat and looking up again.

“Too fatht?”

“Shut up.”

He did.

Five minutes saw Dave link their fingers together and scratch at the closely cropped hair around Sollux’s ear as he swirled his tongue around and Dave bucked his hips up. He immediately opened his eyes and opened his mouth to say something before Sollux grabbed his hand and placed it at the crown of his head and Dave got the message pretty fucking quick. 

At first he was gentle, he really was, fucking the dull heat of Sollux’s mouth as he hummed and the vibrations shot through Dave’s legs and they shook with the effort of keeping as silent as he could.

“God damn it Sollux.”

Said man ceased his assault and rested his forehead on Dave’s hip, still flicking his wrist and keeping up a steady rhythm.

“Dave you’re so hot I thwear to god-“

He’d never noticed just how attractive the lisp was until he’d felt that formerly cumbersome tongue slide across him like it had a down payment on the place. Sollux looked up, mismatched eyes clouded over and still kissing at hip like he couldn’t physically tear himself away and that was the story of how Dave Strider died. 

“Shit Sol keep that up-“

He did. Dave was leaning up on his elbows now, thrusting up into Sollux’s fist while a hand gripped his shoulder tightly. It was either the tiny whine or the whimpered ‘pleathe Dave’ that sent him over the edge, his orgasm ripping through his body and he was barely aware of Sollux sinking down on him again, digging into his hips. 

His legs still felt like lead jello when Sollux crawled up him, wiping the corner of his mouth with a thumb and it wasn’t actually possible to get any sexier. 

“Come here.”

“I am here.”

“No, jackass,” Dave grumbled, hooking a finger through Sollux’s belt loop and tugging him closer. He looked startled until Dave pulled him up so that he was straddling his chest, pushing his jeans down and holy shit this asshole went commando. Rude.  
“Dave wha-ohhh god-“

Sollux gripped the arm rest behind Dave’s head, pushing himself into his mouth and feeling rough hands reach behind and grip his ass, pushing him further into Dave’s mouth. He bit his lip and he knew Dave wanted to hear him but at this rate he’d wake up everyone from here to Jacksonville. 

He started moving, feeling a slick tongue slip around him expertly and spread his knees a little to slide down Dave’s chest, angling his hips up so he wouldn’t choke the guy.

Dave swallowed him down as Sollux’s hips steadied. Once his legs had stopped shaking, he moved down to lay across Dave’s chest, breathing heavily and letting his thumb rub circles into Dave’s hip.

“I’m glad you didn’t die today, Dave.” 

Dave hmm’d and cracked an eye open to look down at Sollux, who was breathing shallowly and dozing on Dave’s chest still. They were sticky with sweat and still completely naked except for their boxers and Dave hadn’t felt this much at ease in many years. He laughed.

“I’m glad I didn’t die either.”

A pause.

“Are we gonna talk about thith at thome point or should we jutht enjoy it for what it ith?”

“End of the world, Sol.” 

A sigh.

“End of the world.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow porn
> 
> ca2lock.tumblr.com


	4. Chapter 4

As it happened, the end of the world provided a healthy environment for not incredibly awkward morning afters. Which was wonderful because within seconds of waking up, it threatened to be. The distant sounds of gunfire and screams were the rooster crow and Dave sat up, bleary eyed and blinking at the sliver of sunlight filtering through a crack in the blinds where Roxy’s gun had set up camp. She turned to him and winked, a thin line of smoke trailing up from her cigarette before she turned back to her watch. Dave looked down at Sollux, who was curled up in the crook of his arm and snoring lightly. Jesus Christ. 

“Sleep well, hon?” Roxy asked when Dave walked over to her. 

“Like a fuckin’ rock,” he said, coming behind her and looking out the window, “what time is it?”

“Ass crack of dawn if you ask me,” she replied, cementing that statement with a huge yawn and a shake of her head, “you know how to work that percolator over there?” Dave nodded and didn’t have to be told twice to make coffee, making his way over and putting it on as quietly as he could. It seemed as if the rest of the house was asleep and Roxy had drawn the short straw the night before. He handed her a cup and she took it, making sure to inhale the aroma exaggeratedly before taking a sip. Dave sat down next to her.

“You do this every morning?” 

“Every morning.

“Ever get any trouble?”

“Some,” she replied, resting the gun on her knee so she could wrap both hands around her cup, “it’s been quiet for the last couple days, though. It’d be nice except I know that bitch is up to something.” 

“How long has it been like this?”

“Shit, a few hours after everything went to hell,” Roxy said with a grimace, “it’s like she’d been fuckin’ waiting for the end to come. Like she knew about it beforehand. Which is god damn impossible, but there you go.”

Dave was full of questions and didn’t know where to start. The past few days had shaken him, after so many days of no one to talk to, there were suddenly a train of people and it was almost as if he’d forgotten how to hold a conversation. Luckily, Roxy seemed incredibly amiable towards him and well enough alert for it being so early, so he didn’t feel so bad needling her for information.

“Do you guys know what’s going on out there?” he asked and it was clear he wasn’t talking about Orlando. 

“A little,” she said, “but I’ve taken it all with a grain of salt, unlike Gullible McShort Shorts back there.” She jerked her head towards Dirk’s room where Jake was mostly still sleeping. “I don’t know about across the pond or anything but I do know a lot about the state of America. Most of the major cities are gone or turned into hunting grounds and Florida’s half underwater, same with half of Texas and the entire West Coast.”

Dave blanched.

“Wait, what? Underwater?”

“I would slap you on the head but I guess you couldn’t have known,” Roxy sighed, “I heard you and your friend talking about   
the Keys last night and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Keys are gone. And so is Miami. And Tampa.” She stared into nothing for a moment. “And Naples thank fuck for that.”

Dave snorted into his coffee.

“But regardless there’s one town on the now most Southern part of Florida tha-“

She was cut off by the shuffling of feet and turned around. Dirk ambled closer to them and rested a hand on Roxy’s shoulder, whose eyes warmed at the sight of it, and ruffled Dave’s hair. 

“All quiet on the western front I take it?” His voice was quiet and scratchy.

“All quiet, boss man.”

“Good,” he turned to Dave and ran a hand through his hair, “you sleep alright little man?” 

Now Dave was twenty three years old but god damn he was happy to see his brother shuffling out of his room tired and face full of stubble and miraculously _alive_. 

“Slept fine, bro.”

Dirk nodded and wandered to the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee and sighing happily. He moved the assorted parts on the kitchen table aside to clear off the map and beckoned for Dave to come over. When Dave’s cup was filled up again and he was seated, Dirk pointed to a spot on the map.

“I know it’s probably too early for this shit but I want to get it out of the way before everyone wakes up,” he explained. 

 

The map was a standard thing, highways and cities all marked out, but the markings rendered it completely unrecognizable from the previous state that Dave knew to be Florida. A huge, blue line had been drawn across the middle part of it, with Orlando a few inches above it. There were X’s on certain cities, like Jacksonville, Gainesville, and Fort Lauderdale, while others had circles around them, Ocala, Pensacola, and the capital, Tallahassee. 

“I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but I know from a very reliable source that all of Southern Florida is now Atlantis,” he said, gesturing to the huge line, “which extends from here-“ he pointed to a small city on the east side- “and ending with Tampa over here-“ he pointed again- “I also know there’s some flooding up in the panhandle but I’ve heard Tallahassee is still relatively intact.”

“Is the capitol still there?” Dave asked. “Like is the governor still around or what?” Dirk laughed quietly. 

“Well he wasn’t doing anything beneficial before the Bomb so it wouldn’t really make a difference.” Dave nodded in agreement. 

“Either way, I hope the bastard tried to flee like a rat and drowned in the process. Now, these cities with the X’s on them represent cities that Serket’s taken over.”

“Who?”

“Vriska, charming young woman you met yesterday.”

“Jesus Christ it’s been less than a fuckin’ month and she’s already managed to take over cities? Plural?”

“She’s god damn smart, dude,” Dirk said, leaning back a bit, “she’s probably got HAM radio or something and friends in all those cities. From what I’ve heard, Jacksonville is an inferno. She hasn’t managed to get Tallahassee yet, which is thankful.” 

“Where did you find out all this shit?”

Dirk smiled.

“Got an old friend from Moody Air Force Base who dropped in to say hello,” he said, “you remember John don’t you?”

“John Egbert?” Dave almost spit out his coffee.

“The very same,” Dirk laughed, “he and his buddy Karkat tried to book it to the Keys in a tiny ass airplane and found out they didn’t exist anymore. So they stopped here on the off chance I was alive.”

“Well where are they now?” Dave was almost on the edge of his seat. He hadn’t heard from John in years, and it sucked because they had been the best of friends in middle school. Dave had fucked off to central Florida and John had booked it right to boot camp, becoming a pilot in the United States Air Force. 

“Well hold on I’m getting to it,” Dirk said, pointing to a small dot on the edge of the blue line, “after they left here, they told me they were heading to a town called Homestead. It’s an Air Force Base and it miraculously survived, although they tell me it’s sitting on the cliff overlooking its new ocean.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?”

Dirk hesitated for a moment and opened his mouth to say something before he was saved by a huge yawn and they both looked round. Jake had woken up and was walking towards them, already decked out with his guns and stupidly short shorts. Dave almost snickered before he caught the murderous look on his brother’s face and zipped it. He looked over at Sollux who was still sleeping, albeit in a different position before turning back to their intruder with a sour look.

“Mornin’ chaps!” came the boom of a voice and even though Dave was 76% awake at this point, he still cringed at the volume of it, “already got the pot on I see, made any plans for the day yet Strider?” 

Jake sat down next to his brother and placed a hand on his shoulder which garnered a strange look from Roxy, who turned away when she realized Dave was looking. It wasn’t sadness or jealousy. If anything, she had looked annoyed. Dirk sighed.

“Not yet, man,” he said, twisting the map a bit and making more marks closer to where they were, “I was just giving Dave the run down of the road so far.”

Jake nodded. “Well I’m anxious to set out already, we’ve been here so long!” He finished his coffee and set it down on the table, pushing back from it. “I’m off to change, see you!”

“Holy shit I’m sorry if you guys are a thing or whatever but I feel like I’m in an episode of Doctor fuckin’ Who,” Dave said when Jake was out of earshot. Dirk chuckled.

“He can be a bit much at times.”

He didn’t elaborate further.

Sollux came over to them ten minutes later and sipped at a cup of coffee, waking up and listening half heartedly to the two brothers catching up. He hadn’t slept that well in weeks and even though most mornings he was a furious dragon, this morning it wasn’t so bad. His eyes flicked over to Dave and he wondered where they stood. Dave answered by taking his hand and leaning over to kiss him on the cheek as Dirk looked away pointedly. Sollux beamed.

“So listen Sol, I know we just got here but Dirk’s got a plan on getting somewhere safer,” he explained.

“Aw damn,” he feigned, hitting his knee lightly, “I wath thtarting to warm up to our new dictator.”

“A barrel of laughs she may be,” Dirk said, “but I’d just as soon like to get the fuck out of here. Orlando in its prime was at best tolerable. I’d hoped everyone would be dead but you can’t always get what you want.”

“But if you try sometimes!” Roxy sang from across the room.

“You’ll find!” came Jake’s baritone.

“Alright guys shut up,” Dirk said but he couldn’t hide the smile on his face.

Their singing had woke up Jane, but it was high time she did since Dirk was anxious to get down to business. 

“To defeat, th-“ Jake started.

“What the fuck did I just say.”

Half an hour later they were all in a circle in the living room, the giant map in the middle and fresh cups of coffee in their hands. The only exception was Roxy, who was still at her place next to the window, an unlit cigarette clenched between her teeth. 

“As we all know, this city is a toxic wasteland,” Dirk began, “and it’s been kind to us for a while but I have a feeling our luck is going to run out. Vriska’s army has been pushing us hard and I don’t know where the fuck all these people are coming from, but it doesn’t look like she’s running out of goons any time soon.” He pointed to a town about a hundred miles south. “John told me there’s a safe camp here. It’s called Homestead.”

“Wait, you showed me this earlier but,” Dave looked at the map again, “isn’t Homestead south of Miami? Or wasn’t it, I guess.”

“It was,” Dirk explained, “but somehow a few airmen and women managed to get the fuck out of there before the wave came.   
Whoever managed to get out made their way to the now southernmost tip of Florida and called it Homestead. Even though it used to be Lake Wales. I don’t think the folks at Lake Wales mind.”

“Why not?” Sollux asked.

“They’re all dead,” Dirk replied, taking off his glasses and rubbing his face, “but that’s not the point. Point is, now that you two are here, I think we can head on down there. John said they have what amounts to a military base all set up, patrolled 24/7, all the fuckin’ food they can eat. They’re even setting up farms.”

“Sounds like a great place to go,” Jane put in, “and I know I’ve asked this from the start but how the hell are we going to get out of here?”

Dirk grimaced. So far the four of them had mapped out their route plus plans B to C2 and what they were going to bring. None had figured out how to slip past Vriska’s army.

“I say we just waltz the fuck on out of here,” Roxy interjected.

“What, at night?” Jake asked, “those scoundrels are out at night too, there’s no way we could sneak past them.”

“I didn’t say anything about sneaking, English,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Why that’s madness!” he said, turning back to the group, “we’ll be drawn and quartered before we can make it to Orange Avenue!”

“Dave doesn’t know where that is.”

“I don’t know where that is.”

“Well it’s not that far from where we are now what I’m trying to say is they will overrun us before we can get out of the complex.”

“I don’t know how big thi-“

“Shut up Dave.”

“You know you said your brother was charming but yo-“

“Whoa there friend, where the hell is this coming from?”

“Would you idiots shut up and let me think?”

They all turned to look at Jane, who was kneeling and following a path with her finger on the map. 

“I think Roxy was right,” she said, “there’s no way this complex isn’t under constant supervision. The only way out is to fight out.”

“And if we survive past the city limits?”

“Then we continue on as planned,” she shrugged, “we should make it in less than three days.”

Dirk furrowed his brow but knew that it was their only shot.

“We’re not going to make it, you know that.”

“It’s die running or die here.”

“Thanks Rocksalt.”

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before Jane cleared her throat again.

“So when do we leave?”

None of them really wanted to. Sure, the makeshift army would be back at some point and Vriska would come calling sooner rather than later, but right now it was dark and quiet and safe. Dave knew better than to trust it.

“I think we should spend the day packing, getting ready to leave,” Dirk said, standing up, “and we can head out first thing tomorrow morning. Who knows, Roxy hasn’t had that much trouble in the mornings, maybe they’re all sleeping or some shit.”  
The group nodded their agreement and slowly rose up, one by one, heading to their respective rooms.

“Jake it’s your watch!” Roxy called.

Dave and Sollux didn’t really have anything to pack, so they hung out in the living room, lending a hand when needed and around noon (or what they all guessed should be noon), Dave made everyone lunch. It was only canned beans and tomato sauce but it sure as shit beat beef jerky. At one point, Jane came out of the back room grumbling to herself, to which Roxy pointed out she shouldn’t be griping because Roxy was the only person smart enough to loot enough toilet paper to stock several Taco Bells for ten years, to which /Jane/ replied she didn’t care because she was really fucking tired of shitting out of a window. 

“You sure you want me with you guyth?”

Dave snapped out of it and looked over. Sollux was playing with the hem of his shirt. The rest of the group was scattered about the apartment, reading or playing cards or making sure everything was packed. 

“What the fuck are you on about, Sol?” Dave asked, moving closer and placing his hand on Sollux’s knee, “of course we want you with us.”

Sollux began to say something but was cut off by the sound of an explosion. It shook the windows and in two seconds Roxy was pushing Jake out of the way of the window.

“Fuck out of my space, nimrod,” she growled, ducking to the sill and sticking the barrel of her M110 out, “let the lady handle it. And can’t this bitch just get our attention the normal way?”

“You know Commander Serket,” Dirk said, sidling up to the window, “smoke and mirrors and shit. Who’s out there?”

“Her and her sister and about twenty fuckin’ dudes holy shit she brought everyone out tonight,” Roxy said, her eye darting back and forth through the scope, “shit there’s Jones and Collins and Shepard and.. holy fuck-“ she looked up and through the window carefully. “JADE!”

Dirk flung an arm out as Jake tried to fly out of the window.

“Let me go Strider!” 

“Don’t lose your fucking head, Jake,” Dirk growled.

“I figured that might get your attention!” they heard Vriska call and Jake let out a whine, breaking free from Dirk’s grip and flung himself halfway out the window. 

“Jake!”

Two men were holding a smaller woman by her arms and she struggled at the sight of Jake. 

“If you hurt her I swe-“

“Holy shit I’m bored,” Vriska cut him off, holding her gun out to point at Jade. 

“Who is that?” Dave whispered to Jane, who was hanging back.

“That’s Jake’s sister,” she replied, “we thought she died a few weeks ago, I guess Vriska’s been keeping her hostage. I don’t know why she’d bring her out now, though.”

“So Dirk, are you gonna pull another stunt like you did last night?” Vriska called, “or are you gonna be good and play nice for once?”

“Dirk let’s just give her the place I don’t even fucking care about it please-“ Jake turned to plead.

“What do you want?” Dirk called, pushing Jake out of the way, who slumped on the couch with his head in his hands. 

“A peace treaty!”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m serious!”

“Why?”

“Because I need your help.”

“With what?”

“Why don’t you come down here so we can talk normally?”

“Why don’t you go fuck yourself?”

The cock of her gun made him reconsider. 

With Roxy trained between the dictator’s eyes and Dave by his side, Dirk made his way downstairs until he was faced with a wall   
of flame the same as the night before. 

“What do you want?”

“I told you, I need your help.”

“And if we help you, will you give us Jade back?”

“Of course. I may be many things, but I’m certainly not a liar.”

“Well.”

“Okay maybe sometimes. But you kn-“

“What do you need help with.”

At this, Vriska looked uncomfortable and Dirk exchanged confused glances with his brother.

“It’s actually my sister who needs help,” she explained, “she’s stuck in Gainesville and every time I try to send men out to get her, they fucking die on me. Worthless sacks of shit.” To emphasize her point, or just because, she swung her gun around and shot one. 

“What makes you think we can do it?”

“I may hate your fucking guts, but I’ve seen what Roxy can do with that gun,” she said, “and I saw your brother’s boyfriend shoot a guy between the god damn eyes from twenty feet away.”

“When we bring her back, will you let us leave Orlando safely?”

“You have my word.”

Dirk went silent for a moment.

“Where is she?”

“Shand’s Hospital in Gainesville, it’s just over a hundred miles north of here,” she said, “it’ll probably take you guys a week or so   
to get back. And when you do, you can have Jade and get the fuck out for good.”

Dirk nodded and turned to Dave before heading back inside.

"Bye!" they heard her call faintly.

When the door opened, Jake was on him immediately.

“Where is she, why don’t you have her?”

“Relax, she’s going to be okay,” Dirk soothed, putting his hands on the other man’s shoulders and guiding him to the couch. 

 

“You just left her down there?” he burst, pushing Dirk away and heading for the door. Before his hand touched the knob, Dirk had spun him round, pinning him to the door.

“You’re going to get yourself and your sister killed now sit the fuck down.”

Everyone had gone silent as Jake looked at him furiously before shoving him away again and taking his place on the couch. Dirk sighed. 

“Change of plans, everyone,” he said, “we’re going to Gainesville.”

He paused to let everyone settle down and Roxy took a pot shot, giggling to herself. 

“Vriska said if we go to Gainesville and get her sister, she’ll release Jade and let us all out of the city scot fuckin’ free.”

No one argued with him for fear of upsetting Jake. He wanted to set out immediately, but Dirk kicked him back to his room, where he brooded for several hours before falling asleep. Roxy took her leave shortly after with Jane, and soon it was just Dirk, Dave, and Sollux sitting in the dim light. Dirk had a glass of scotch and was pouring over his map while Sollux puffed on a cigarette and sipped on his third rum and coke. 

“What’s going on between you and Jake, man?” Dave asked, pouring himself another drink. He had kept his questions about his   
brother’s love life to a minimum but with the outburst earlier, he had to ask. 

“Nothing, little bro.” Which was, of course, big brother for ‘get-your-nose-out-of-my-business-before-I-cut-it-off’. 

“Come on did you two used to date or something?” Dave persisted. Sollux tapped his leg with his foot and Dave had enough sense to look sheepish.

“Leave it alone, Dave,” Sollux said, leaning back and sipping on his drink. Dirk looked up for a moment and snorted.

“Your boyfriend’s smart,” he said, “you might want to hang onto him.”

“I will if he lets me.”

Sollux smiled because shit it was one day and two hurried handjobs later and Dave was completely cool with referring to him as his boyfriend. Not only that, but he was planning on keeping it that way. And that was just the most ridiculous thing. 

“You boys better get to bed,” Dirk said after a while, folding up his map, and standing up to stretch, “big fuckin’ day tomorrow.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Dave grumbled, pulling him and Sollux on the couch after Dirk had waved to them and shut the door to his room. 

“You nervouth about tomorrow?” Sollux asked after they had settled and put the lights out.

“Not really,” came the reply, “I mean we’ve struck out on our own in the wasteland before, why should this be any different?   
Plus, we’re four more strong and we know the road already.” Sollux nodded and wrapped his arms around Dave’s chest, who pulled him closer and placed a soft kiss to his forehead.

“I gueth you’re right.”

“You're damn right I am now get some sleep before I pull you up on my chest again.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ehehehehhe

Chapter Five

 

“Listen ho, if you touch it again I will not hesitate to break out my guns and shove them up you’re a-“

“Rocksalt-“

“No I’m tired of this shit!”

Dave woke up to the dulcet tones of Roxy screeching through the apartment, gun slung to her back and fire roaring through her nostrils. He rubbed his eyes and went to pat Sollux awake, only to realize that his lover was in the kitchen with a cup of coffee, trying his hardest to not laugh. Dirk waved his brother over, his mouth set in a thin line of dontlaughdontlaughdontlaugh. 

“What in the fuck is going on?” Dave murmured to the pair as Sollux passed him a cup. Roxy could still be heard in her bedroom, along with several thumps and groans of pain. 

“Jake touched her stuffed rabbit again,” Dirk explained. Dave thought to himself what an odd sentence that was, not that a grown woman would get so upset at someone touching her stuffed animal, but that it had happened multiple times. 

“Does he really want it or something?” Dave asked.

“Beats the fuck out of me.”

Dirk had set out the map of Florida again and was drawing them a path to Gainesville, which was a few hours away by car, so a few days by foot. 

“Alright assholes, here’s the plan,” Dirk started when everyone had gathered around the table. It wasn’t quite light outside yet, they had about an hour to kill before they could set out. “We’re going to take 17 through Sanford, Deland, and Palatka, and across 20 to reach Gainesville. It’s the most direct way without going through Ocala National Forest, which I heard is now home to central Florida’s most dangerous gangs.”

“Why not just take 75?” asked Jake.

“Because to get there we’d need to go either go through Apopka or take I-4, which we all know is a highway to Hell at this point.”

“Sol and I went through Apopka on our way here,” Dave interjected, “it was relatively quiet.”

“Yeah with just the two of you,” Dirk pointed out, “there’s gonna be six of us and we’re loaded to the teeth. I don’t want to give the bandits a neon sign pointing out treasure for them.” Dave nodded. 

Dirk looked around the table. 

Dave looked much older than Dirk remembered. He had bags under his eyes and his hair was unusually unkempt. Not in the cool  
way he spent hours to make it look, but in the apocalypse I-can’t-get-the-undercut-I-want way. His staple pair of glasses had been shoved up in his hair to reveal tired reddish eyes, which flickered across the glossy map on the table. He had missed his brother.

Sollux, even though Dirk had just met him, looked in better spirits than when he first arrived. It could have been because the kid had finally eaten a decent mean and slept on something other than concrete. His clothes sort of hung off of him and Dirk couldn’t really attribute that to sudden weight loss from a steady diet of soda and Cheetos; he had the sneaking suspicion Sollux had always been that thin. Dirk’s eyes roamed longer along his collarbone than necessary. God help him.

Roxy was perfect in every way. She had a sort of elegance about her that was easily attained but looked like it had taken hours. She picked at a spot on the table gloomily but smiled when she saw Dirk looking at her. When the Wave passed, she made a point to enlarge her collection of wigs. Today, it was pink and fell gracefully around her face. They still had a long way to go.

Jane was in high spirits this morning, which was unusual, not because she was a sad person, but because it was in the morning and Jane hated the mornings. She had pulled back her hair in preparation for the day’s trek and already had her bag strapped on tight. She was so adorable and Dirk wanted to kiss her right on the mouth. 

Jake. He was so fucking done with Jake.

All in all, he couldn’t have picked a better party to be with.  
____________________________________________________  
December 21st, 2012

“GO GO GO GO GO GO!”

“I’M TRYING, FEF!”

The little car barreled down Highway 363, swerving to avoid broken trees and blocks of limestone that had broken free of the earth and were sent tumbling into the road. Up ahead was a stranded car and two figures beside it, frantically waving them down.

“I’m sorry,” the driver murmured, swerving to narrowly miss them. The girl in the passenger seat, Fef, swung her head around to follow them for a moment, only to see them be swallowed by the ground, which had opened up beneath them. She cringed. Her sympathy for the men quickly vanished as the crest of a gigantic wave appeared, faintly, but still just enough to make her squeal and twist around to face out the front again.

“Aradia, it’s getting closer!”

“No shit, girl, I’m going as fast as I can!”

The ground around them began to splinter and break into pieces, some bits towering above them. A farm split into a mosaic of different colored grass and fragments of farmhouse, little figures running across the plains in hope of escape. The road behind them cracked and buckled, the wave of dirty water rushing up to meet them. 

“ARADIA!”

The Capital Circle intersection could be seen looming into view, and Aradia floored it, looking to her left and right wildly. She sighed.

“Hold on, Fef,” she said.

The road fell thirty feet.

A wall of dirt and pipes appeared in front of them as the gas station on the corner burst into flame and still they barreled towards it.

“WHAT THE FU-“

They were launched into the air as the road popped up again before crumbling into pieces and their car flew across the intersection and landed ten yards away from the New Gulf of Mexico. Water rushed against the wall, dousing the flames of the gas station and putting everything behind it underwater. 

The two girls stepped out of the car and looked behind them, their car still puttering. In both directions and all in front of them  
was a vast sea where Wakulla County used to be, filled with water that was now teeming with cars and metal and people. 

Feferi walked up to her friend and ran a shaky hand through her hair. 

“How… how did you know?”  
____________________________________________________________

“I’m not having beans again.”

But they were. They were most definitely having beans for the fourth time in a row.

“We haven’t seen a decently stocked market in ages, so it’s beans or nothing,” Dirk said, tossing Dave a fresh can. 

Jane rolled her eyes and began setting up camp, which consisted of a tent, a fire pit, and a place for Roxy to set up shop with her gun and cigarettes, which she had just lit up.

“You know zombies can spot a lit cigarette from a mile away,” Jake said, eyeing his future dinner.

“Good thing this ain’t the zombie apocalypse and just the regular one then,” Roxy grumbled with her teeth clenched. 

“Shut up you two,” Dirk said, spooning beans into bowls and passing them around. Sollux took his and smiled his thanks. Dave was out with Jane to collect firewood and see if there were any lootable stores nearby, Jake was sulking in the tent, and Roxy was focused on her dinner and whatever was through her scope. Dirk sat down next to him and Sollux scooted over to accommodate him.

He had tried to not really focus on Dirk, he really had, but the resemblance to his brother was uncanny and unsettling. They both had those strange eyes, although Dirk’s were more orange, and they both had the same strange shade of hair that twisted up in all directions. Dirk was taller and had more muscle than Dave, but his calves weren’t as defined. His voice was lower and less severe than Dave’s and he walked around with more grace. Dave had the nicer ass, though. Sollux mentally shook himself and brought his focus back to the beans.

“So how’d you and Dave meet?” Dirk asked with a singsong tone, sidling up to him. 

“Oh you know, jutht thaved me from a gunshot wound outthide of an abandoned gath thtation,” Sollux giggled, “tho cliché.” Dirk laughed.

“He really saved you?”

“It wathn’t a life threatening wound,” he said, “just grazed my leg a bit. I could have probably lived, but Dave thwooped in and patched me up. Athked where I wath headed and I tagged along with him.” Dirk nodded.

“He’s a good kid,” he said, “good fighter, but still sort of lacking on the common sense side. I’m glad his training came in handy after all.”

“Hith training?”

“Before he moved out we fought a lot,” Dirk explained, “like staged fights, we didn’t hate each other or anything. Mostly with bokutos out in the grass. I taught him how to handle a sword and sneak through groups of enemies while staying completely silent.”

“Why?” 

“Just in case.”

“Well it thertainly came in handy.”

“Yeah it did.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes, listening to the distant sounds of animals and Jake’s occasional huffing. Sollux nodded towards the tent and lowered his voice.

“Are you two a thing?”

Dirk sighed.

“Yeah, it was bound to come up sooner or later,” he said, setting his bowl down and leaning back, “we started dating a couple weeks before the Wave. I met him at the gym. Thought he was cute.” Dirk cocked his head. “In like. A novelty toy sort of way.” Sollux snorted. 

“He doeth theem like a lot to handle.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Dirk said quickly, “he’s a wonderful guy, never met anyone else with a bigger heart. But he’s sort of oblivious to social… anything, and gets offended way too easily. Takes things too personally, you know?” Sollux nodded wisely and scraped out his bowl. 

“He theemth to know a lot about thurvival shit,” he said. 

“Oh he’s a genius,” Dirk nodded, “he could track a squirrel for about thirty miles off of one broken twig. But he can’t find his way out of a fuckin’ paper bag.” 

Sollux laughed and looked up at Dirk, who suddenly looked pained.

“And I can’t break up with him now,” he shrugged, pushing at a leaf with his toe, “end of the world, right?”

Sollux blanched a bit and stared at him.

“End of the world.”

Dave and Jane came back shortly after that, carrying two bags full of stuff. Dirk stood up and walked towards them, Sollux closely in tow.

“You two look happy,” he said, reaching out to relieve Dave of his burden while Sollux helped Jane.

“We found a local grocery store that was still stocked full of canned food and beer!” Jane cried.

“WHO THE FUCK SAID BEER?” Roxy’s voice came booming back from camp. Jane laughed and set down a 24 pack of Yuengling, opening it and passing one to Roxy. 

“And look!” Jane squealed, rummaging around in a bag, “I found canned peas!” A collective whoop came from everyone. Jane walked over to Roxy, her hands behind her back. “And I found you something you might like,” she said, pulling out a box of hazelnut creamers and holding it out. It looked as if Roxy was holding her child for the very first time, from the disbelieving look on her face to the tears welling up in her eyes.

“Jane… I… I’d kiss you if you’d let me,” she whispered, gazing softly down at the package. Jane blushed.

“Well I mean, it’s not a big deal I mean I ju-“

Roxy kissed her right on the mouth and hurried back to her post. Sollux smiled at the look on Jane’s face.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ayyyy we back
> 
> tw: gore

These days the Florida Panhandle was looking a little worse for wear. Vriska Serket stood atop the Capitol building which more or less looked like a giant penis and sighed the length of Apalachee Parkway. Tallahassee was a decent city to be in control of. To her west was Pensacola, a quaint city that always smelled like salt and gasoline but still strategically advantageous. To her east was Jacksonville, foggy star of Florida and somehow still miraculously intact and under her control. 

Wrestling control of the entirety of Florida was a little easier than she had expected since half of Florida was gone, but it had still been a journey. Gainesville was by far the easiest since no one in that town knew what was going on anyway. Ocala had proven to be difficult, as had Tampa, which now had the strategic advantage of being backed by the New Gulf of Mexico. 

Tallahassee was one of the last cities she had set her sights on. To hell with Lake City and Wellborn and Live Oak, I-10 may be paved with gold but the jewel was right in the center. With the New Gulf directly at her feet, there was nowhere to go but up. 

She wiped the blood from her hands and turned away from the view to head back indoors, to her newly earned throne.

____________________________________________________________________________

Highway 17 was treating the group nicely so far. There had been one small group of bandits who had taken one look at Roxy’s gun and got out of there quick. 

They skirted around Deland as quick as they could because even from 10 miles away they could see the faint, pulsing glow of what could only be massive fires erupting from the treetops and into the night sky. As they slept in the forest they could hear raucous screaming and celebrations.

Tiny towns passed them as they continued, each of which were scoured for more food. In Seville, Jane had the good fortune of finding an undisturbed gas station where they stocked up on cigarettes, beer, and all the snacks their hearts desired. Dave even grabbed a pristine Four Loko and pretended to be 19 again until the sweetness made him puke and he stuck to beer the rest of the night. 

They hit a problem a few miles outside of Palatka, the turning point for the last leg of their journey. 

“Well shit,” Dirk sighed, standing on the roof of a gas station and looking out at the general direction of Palatka from across the St. Johns River. 

The St. Johns River was an interesting river and not just because it had been polluted to hell and back by politicians before the bomb and now had a chance to breathe again, but because it ran north. It skirted around the Seven Sisters Islands and through several conservation areas before continuing its trek north through Jacksonville and into the Atlantic Ocean. 

“What’s wrong?” Roxy asked, clambering up to stand next to him and lighting a cigarette. 

Dirk pointed through the trees in front of him, towards Palatka. 

“Our previous plan had us crossing the St. Johns River to avoid going directly through Palatka and hitting Highway 20 that way,” he started, pointing off to his left, “but the river looks a little unstable and we would still have to cross through Silver Lake Drive, which is unknown territory for me.”

Roxy looked out and hummed to herself. 

“You’re suggesting going through the city?” she asked. 

“There’s six of us,” Dirk said, “we’re all pretty good shots with the exception of you being an incredible shot.” 

“Aw thanks partner,” Roxy smirked, “but do you think we’ll actually be able to hold our own in a smaller sized city like that?”

“If we can’t then we got no business going into Gainesville.”

Roxy frowned.

“Alright,” she said finally, “but we’re hugging the burbs and going in the daytime.”

Dirk nodded.

Back at the campfire, Jane was humming and crocheting something that looked like a hat while Jake just stared into the fire. Jane kept stealing glances over to him but Jake was too intently focused on whatever was rattling around in his brain. 

Sollux planted himself next to Dave, who started from his reverie and happily moved over a few inches to accommodate the new arrival. 

“Find anything?” Dave asked. 

“Not much,” Sollux replied, pulling his backpack onto his lap and opening it, “jutht a pack of gum and thome hot cheetoth.” 

“Hot damn gimme those,” Dave said quickly, relieving Sollux of his bagged snack. Sollux chuckled as Dave tore them open and began devouring them. 

“Saw you talking to my brother earlier,” he said through a mouth of fake cheese. Sollux chuckled nervously. 

“Yeah we talked you know,” Sollux managed to squeak out, hastily shoving a piece of gum in his mouth and trying to not go completely red. Dave laughed.

“Relax man, it’s fine,” Dave said, putting a hand on Sollux’s knee and rubbing it gently, “I get it, he’s hot.” Sollux choked on nothing.

“No he ithn’t,” he stammed, earning a skeptical look from Dave, “I mean he lookth like you and you’re really hot but it’th different with him you know he’th a different kind of hot, like not the kind of hot I’m interethed in at all but-” Dave kissed him right on the mouth.

“Sol, I told you, it’s fine,” he said, pressing their foreheads together and smiling gently, “I don’t mind.” Sollux darted back and forth between Dave’s eyes and gulped, accidentally swallowing his gum. 

“But,” Dave said, pulling back and delving back into his Cheetos, “he’s got a… thing. So no go.”

Sollux blinked a few times and pulled another stick of gum to chew on. He wondered briefly how that would even work but was stopped by Dave’s statement. Dirk did have a thing with Jake, but then again, why was he even thinking about this? They had a sister to save and there were bandits all around them and they could die at any moment. 

Which maybe was the best time to be thinking about this.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dirk and Roxy headed back towards the fire as the sky darkened around them. She looked around them and frowned.

“I don’t like being so low to the ground,” she grimaced.

“I know,” Dirk agreed, “but we’ll be gone soon.” Roxy nodded, knowing she probably wouldn’t sleep tonight. 

“Alright everyone,” Dirk started, sitting down next to Jake, albeit at a good distance which didn’t go unnoticed, “Roxy and I have discussed it, but would like to speak with you all about it too.” The rest of the group turned to him and listened.

“The river looks uncrossable at this point,” he began, “and I’m not too familiar with the area between here and Highway 20. We think it’s best to hug the outskirts of Palatka during the daytime and meeting up with 20 there instead of risking the river.”

Dave nodded and turned to Sollux, who shrugged in agreement. Dirk turned to Jane, who also nodded her approval. 

“Well Jake,” he said, turning to him, “that just leaves you. What do you think?”

“I think it’s a horrible idea,” Jake said firmly, crossing his arms and earning a sigh from Dirk. Roxy let out a short laugh and continued to scan the treeline through her scope. 

“Why?” Dirk asked.

“I don’t like our chances in the city,” Jake said simply, ignoring the protests going on around him, “I can get us across the river easy.” 

Dirk put his chin in his hands and looked at the fire.

“Strider don’t tell me you’re actually considering this,” Roxy said through a cigarette. A few seconds of silence passed and she looked around incredulously. “Oh my god you are.”

“I don’t want to put any of you in more danger than you need to be,” Dirk snapped, “and going through the city would do just that.”

“We wouldn’t be going straight through the city!” Roxy said, her voice rising, “I can hang back or scout forward and make sure we’re safe, and we need to stock up on food and water anyway.”

Dirk shook his head and looked through his fingers wearily. 

“Do you not trust me to get us across the river safely, Dirk?” Jake said lowly. Roxy snarled.

“Fine,” Dirk said finally, “we’ll go across St. Johns and cut through to 20.” 

Roxy stared at him in disbelief before turning around and scoping the treeline again. Dirk sighed. He hated disappointing Roxy. Jane looked indifferent to the whole thing. Maybe Dave wasn’t upset? He looked at his brother, who was for once unreadable. Dave stood up and headed towards the gas station.

“Gotta take a leak,” he said to no one in particular. 

Dirk looked pleadingly at Sollux, who gave him a small smile and shrugged at him. A beam of light in otherwise dark times, Dirk thought to himself. He hadn’t been asleep the night Dave and Sollux showed up. Dirk had been too upset with Jake to sleep, so he laid in bed with his arms crossed behind his head and got lost in his thoughts before a noise ripped him from his stupor. He heard the lisped whisper through the dark and his breath caught in his chest. He had fallen asleep to the sounds of Sollux gasping for breath and he hadn’t felt a fire like this in a very long time. Jake put his arm around Dirk and he was reluctantly brought back to reality.

The small falter of Sollux’s smile gave him a tiny bit of hope. 

____________________________________________________________________________

Crossing the St. Johns River turned out to not be the hard part. The hard part was traversing Silver Lake Drive, through the long leaf pines and being confined to one winding road and a map that may or may not be completely accurate.

The hard part was wrapping their minds around what had followed them out of the river. 

They were resting on the side of the road, getting their bearings together. Roxy was on the other side of the road, as far away from Jake as she could possibly be, cleaning her gun angrily. Dirk sat next to her, taking small sips of water from his bottle. 

“Don’t know what you see in him, Strider,” Roxy mumbled, clicking the magazine back into place. Dirk sighed.

“I don’t know either,” he said lightly and Roxy looked at him, surprised. He had never actually responded to her when it came to Jake, just shook his head and walked off. She waited for him to continue. 

“But what can you do, right?” he said, brushing off his knees and standing up, “alright, guys are you ready to move out?”

There was a general groan but everyone stood up, finishing their canteens or whatever snacks they had been working on. 

“Look it’s only a mile to 20 so let’s ju-” Dirk started, then turned around so fast his glasses almost went flying. He put a finger to his lips and stared intently at the treeline they had emerged from 10 minutes prior, slowly making his way towards it. Roxy had her sniper attached to her back and brought out a smaller pistol, training it where Dirk was looking.

A faint scent reached Dirk’s nose and he sniffed out quickly, trying to get it out of his system. He held up a hand to his face and risked a glance behind him to see the others doing the same. Jake had even taken to silently dry-heaving and Dirk couldn’t really blame him.

Presently, they heard footsteps coming from the brush. One, maybe two people? Dirk thought, putting a hand on his holstered gun and stopping.  
“Ease up there, friend,” Roxy called, moving up to where Dirk was standing, “you got three sights on your ass, so come out slowly and let’s see those jazz hands.”

Unfortunately, the entities that shambled from the treeline did not know what jazz hands were, much less English, and Roxy’s warning went unheeded. 

The first one that emerged looked normal enough, walking on torn legs towards the party. A collective gasp was heard behind him but Dirk stood up straight, tearing the pistol from his side and holding it up. 

“Dirk what the fuck,” Roxy whispered at him, slowly taking a step back. Dirk didn’t say anything for a few moments. “Dirk?!”

“Hold on I’m thinking,” he said hurriedly, holding his gun up higher, “we don’t want any trouble, just turn around and be on your way.” Dirk’s politeness also went unheeded, and the figure came ever closer, followed by two more from the treeline. Roxy’s set her sights on the newcomers and made a small frightened noise. That noise is what put Dirk on edge; Roxy wasn’t known for her small, frightened noises. 

“Last chance, pal,” Dirk called. The figure loomed closer and Dirk was able to make out the more delicate features of it: the sunken face, water dripping from its form, the missing arm and subsequent empty shirt hole where said arm was supposed to be. Dirk nodded to himself.

A shot rang out, making a few members of the brigade jump, and Dirk’s bullet tore through the figure’s chest, who didn’t seem to mind at all and continued its journey forward. Dirk nodded quickly to himself and set his sights higher, blowing a hole through its skull and watching it fall to the ground. 

Between Roxy’s “oh fuck this” and Dave’s half-worried, half-totally-fucking-excited face and Jane’s look of terror, Dirk tried to count how many of the things were following them before turning around and signaling to the group.

“Alright kids time to go,” he said, scooping up his back and heading down the road. No one argued or wasted time picking up their things and following, occasionally stealing glances behind them at the disappearing figures. 

As Dirk ran on towards Highway 20, he wondered to himself how the end of the world could still be fucking them over so badly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so boring for adding zombies oh well


	7. Chapter 7

December 22nd 2012

“John I’m not fucking doing this.”

“You’ll be fine let’s go.”

“John, I’m telling you, I can’t. Fucking. Do this.”

The man named John ran a bloody hand over his face and pulled himself into the Cessna, groaning at his useless arm. 

“John I’ve noticed you’re getting in the plane,” John’s companion said, pulling himself into the cockpit slightly to better shout, “in spite of the fact that I have told you at least, hmm, three times now? That this is impossible and I will not do this.”

“Karkles, it’s either this or we fall into the abyss that’s making its way towards us,” John muttered, shutting his side of the plane and breathing heavily. Karkles was not pleased with the new name but let it slide because John was turning paler every second. He groaned and clambered into the plane, strapping himself in. 

“Okay what the fuck do I do now?” Karkat asked, hands away from the plethora of buttons in front of him. 

“Alright how’s our fuel?” John started. 

“Good.”

“Fuel filler caps?”

“I don’t even know what the fuck those are.”

“Windshield?”

“Not broken so I suppose that’s a good thing.”

“Alright,” John sat up some, looking around the cockpit, “is the control wheel lock off? Over there?” Karkat looked around.

“Yeah, it’s off.”

“Ignition switch is off,” John continued and Karkat nodded, going paler than John with every item on the checklist, “master switch is on, check the fuel quantity indicators, flaps should be at 10 degrees, turn the master switch on, and the fuel selector valve should be on both.” John pointed to each of these things deftly, making sure that Karkat wasn’t hyperventilating.

The checklist seemed to go on and on. Karkat’s hands steadied with each item and soon he lost himself in the low drone of John’s voice and tried to not think about the fact that they were flying this two and a half ton Skyhawk to the god damn Florida Keys. 

They were in the middle of checking the cabin when Karkat looked to his left and let out some kind of noise that even he couldn’t describe even if he wanted to. 

“John are there any steps that we can skip?” he asked, keeping his eyes on the fault line that was hell bent on making its way towards them, “You know maybe let’s not focus on our passengers’ baggage and get this fucking thing in the air?”

John would have been annoyed but followed Karkat’s line of sight and hastened the process. 

“Alright, alright, turn coordinator?”

“On.”

“Magnetic compass?”

“Good?! I guess? It’s full of something.”

“Vacuum?” 

“Sucking ha-”

“AMMETER?”

“WHATEVER, IT LOOKS FINE, LET’S JUST GO.”

The crack in the earth grew closer, swallowing several planes that the duo had the fortune of not choosing.

“Okay, set the parking brakes and push the throttle,” John said, leaning over to help Karkat. He muttered under his breath as his good hand flew over controls and Karkat danced in his seat, one eye on the crumbling earth next to them.

“Throttle at 1000 RPMs, adjust the throttle friction lock, like that, okay now release the parking brake,” John said, pausing his movements over the instruments and placing his hand on Karkat’s, “you got this.” 

Karkat nodded and released the parking brake. The plane shook forward and began rolling steadily away from the fault line.

“Alright Kar, put your wing flaps up, make sure your carburetor heat is cold,” John started as the plane began moving at a good clip down the runway, “fully open the throttle and tell me when you get to 55 KIAS.” 

“Like the car?” Karkat laughed, turning to John who was stony-faced, “come on John I don’t know what the fuck a ‘kia’ is.” 

“Well you’re about to miss it!” 

“Shit-”

“Lift the nose wheel!” 

Karkat crossed himself and lifted the wheel, feeling the little plane shake as it lifted off the ground and away from the fault line, which had now spread further and claimed most of the Base.

“You see this part,” John asked, pointing to the top edge of the cowling, “you’re going to want to keep your horizon on that, and keep your wing correction angle over the runwa-” he looked out and noticed that there was no more runway. “Okay well just, keep an eye on the cowling at least. And stay at 70 to 80 KIAS.”

“Is that like miles per hour?”

“Absolutely not.”

The plane rose gradually and Karkat’s eyes were flying over the instruments even though he knew John was keeping them in check. When they had reached their altitude, John told him to reduce the pitch and accelerate. 

“Now throttle back to 2400 RPMs and trim,” he said, “bank to your right… there, and straight on ‘till morning.”

Karkat leaned back and let out a breath that he’d been holding since the start of the checklist and risked a glance at John, who had already closed his eyes. He smiled for the first time since the world ended.

“I told you that you could do it,” John murmured a short while later. 

“In the same way I could make creme Brule if Gordon Ramsey shouted the recipe at me, of course I could do it, fucking Gordon Ramsey was there,” Karkat scoffed but felt pleased all the same. John chuckled.

“I love you.”

“Go to hell.” 

_________________________

“John wake up.”

John started awake, sweat on his forehead and a pain in his arm. He groaned and looked over at Karkat, who had his head in one hand and was leaning against the door. 

“How long was I out?” he asked.

“Drama queen,” Karkat laughed, “we’ve been flying for 40 minutes.”

“Well we can’t be there yet,” John said, sitting up, “furthest we could be is Ocala but…” he trailed off, staring through the windshield at what was most likely the reason Karkat looked so defeated.

“Karkat?”

“Yes my flower.”  
“Where’s Florida?”

______________________________

Karkat thought landing would be much easier than taking off, just set the thing down and be done with it, but John had all his procedures and checklists and hobnobbery and quite frankly Karkat was happy to just crash the fucking thing at this point. 

They set down just north of Orlando near Winter Park. With the engine cut, the world around them was completely still and silent for the first time since everything went to hell. 

“John what the hell happened?”

John shook his head, going over the past two hours in his head. So far he had seen his entire Air Force Base swallowed by the earth, and he never thought that there were fault lines under Georgia, and half of Florida. The good half, at least. 

There was something surreal about seeing an ocean where an ocean previously wasn’t the day before. There were no pristine beaches, no gradual slope and sand from the grassy dunes to the beach, just a fjord that paled Norway and a steep drop to the dirty ocean underneath. 

“Why are we even in Florida?” Karkat continued as John just stared ahead into the forest, “this place is going to sink we will be under fucking water if we stay here.” He took a breath and looked over at John, still staring. “And I don’t want to be underwater, John, alright? I would like to be up to my eyeballs in fresh air and maybe even be on top of a mountain somewhere, right? A mountain that has very little or no chance of possibly being underwater?”

John kept his eyes ahead of him and began to say something but was cut off by static. Both men jumped and John grabbed the HAM radio under his seat.

“What the hell is that?” Karkat asked as John fiddled with the knobs.

“It’s a short wave radio,” John explained, holding it up to his ear and checking for frequencies, “someone’s broadcasting.” 

They sat there for a few minutes holding their breath until a voice came through.

“-dcast on December twenty second, two thousand and twelve. Message repeat, this is the Homestead Air Force Reserve Base, currently relocated to Lake Wales, Florida. We have set up a safe haven for those survivors of yesterday’s events and welcome them to our newly established base. To any survivors looking for passage to southern Florida, we regret to inform you that all Florida cities south of Tampa, Lake Wales, and Palm Bay have been destroyed. Please adjust your course accordingly. This message was broadcast on December twenty second, two thous-”

John cut the radio and sat in stunned silence with Karkat. If he hadn’t seen the new ocean with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed the radio. 

“What do you want to do?” Karkat asked finally.

“Let’s go to Homestead,” John replied, grabbing a bag from the backseat and opening his door, “but we have to make a stop in Winter Park first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bing bong its karkat and john


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> why am i still writing this its terrible

Roxy hummed contentedly, perched in her tree with a cold cup of coffee resting beside her. She yawned hugely, rubbing her eyes with a free hand and looking back at the rest of the crew, also in various trees, though not as comfortable as her. Jake looked pleased with himself, which annoyed her to no end so she turned her gaze to Dirk, who was lying beside him, looking less than pleased. She sighed and went back to her post. 

“You know these hammocks aren’t bad,” Dave said lowly. He wasn’t sure if he should keep his voice down or not, but since the discovery of whatever had followed them out of the river, the entire party had been quieter, more alert. 

“Not bad for a human in their prime,” Sollux muttered, shifting around for the millionth time.

“You look like you’re in your prime Sol,” Dave replied, sliding a hand down Sollux’s side. Sollux hmmf’d into the jacket he was using as a pillow.

“Tell that to my eyeballs,” he grumped, letting a smile come out as Dave kissed down his neck and shoulder. 

“Your eyeballs are lovely,” Dave said, making his way back up to Sollux’s jawline.

A loud retching noise came from the general direction of Roxy.

“Sorry Rocksalt,” Dave called as Sollux giggled uncontrollably, “we’ll stop being in love just for you.” 

“Just be in love a little quieter!” Roxy laughed, looking back but catching the strange look on Dirk’s face. She threw him an inquisitive look and got nothing in response. 

“Oh, by the way, Sol,” Dave said a little quieter after Sollux’s laughing had died down, “I love you.”

Being short of breath and being full of too much air aren’t normally things that the human body experiences, much less at the same time. 

“I love you too.”

______________________________

“I don’t want to go through Interlachen.”

“Honey, I don’t think anyone wants to go through Interlachen.”

Roxy grimaced into the receding darkness of the west and strapped her bootlaces tight before standing back up and stretching.

“But it’s this shithole then a tinier shithole, then we get to Gainesville,” she said, lighting up a cigarette and turning to Jane, who coughed but otherwise said nothing. Roxy looked sheepish. “Sorry, girl.” 

“It’s okay!” Jane piped up, waving the smoke away and looking down 20 to the next town they had to crawl through. “If we didn’t go through Palatka, why do we have to go through this town that looks much bigger?”

“Well we would have gone through Palatka,” Roxy said, looking back at Jake, who was too busy strapping his guns in to notice Roxy’s futile disdain, “but there was a shortcut available. We don’t really have another shortcut here unless we want to go around, but that would kill our travel time and force us to go through the woods, something I’m not really willing to do again.”

Jane shuddered, remembering the things they had encountered the day before. 

“I’m fine with that,” she said.

Dirk led the party with Jake close behind him, too close, if you asked Dirk. Dave and Sollux followed up with Jane in the middle while Roxy hung back a little ways, sniper out and eyes all around her. 

“Looks like it might rain soon,” Roxy said as they approached the city, pointing to their north at the darkening horizon. The sky above them was crystal clear but nearer to the tree line it grew to a dark bluish-grey, that special color of sky during Florida summers when you knew it was time to go inside before the frog-strangler wall of rain hit you. 

The buildings began to thicken around them, signifying their entrance to the city and they stuck closer together. They were pleasantly surprised to find, an hour into their trip, that the townsfolk of Interlachen had banded together and created their own small community. At first, people watched the group warily from their front porches. 

At one point they happened upon a large grocery store next to large intersection that had several armed guards outside of it. The parking lot had been transformed into a very small settlement, with ramshackle houses set up haphazardly. A makeshift fence had been erected around the entire thing, with more guards posted at the corners. 

Dirk stopped the group and looked over at the setup before turning around. 

“I’m going to talk to one of the guards and see if they will let us in,” he explained, taking out a bottle of water. 

“Dirk, we have nothing to offer,” Jane said, “if it’s supplies we’re looking for, which we desperately need, we have nothing to give for them.” Dirk frowned. 

“Let’s talk to them anyway,” Dirk said, handing Roxy his gun, “I feel that we’re making our new friends uncomfortable.” Indeed, there was a small crowd following them, eyeing them warily. 

Dirk approached the guard “tower” with his hands in the air.

“Hello there!” he called, earning a cocked gun pointed directly at his forehead, “my name is Dirk, this is my merry band of fellows-” he waved his hand behind him, “-we’re passing through from Orlando and we’re very low on supplies, is this something you could help us with?” 

The guard said nothing, but Dirk took it as a good sign that he had put his gun away. He turned to convey his happiness with the situation to the rest of the group but found 10 more guns trained on them from the townsfolk behind them. The guard on the tower muttered something into a radio on her belt and waited a moment before getting a response. She nodded and put the radio away.

“Alright, open the gates and let them in.”

The group caught up to Dirk and followed them through the junk gates and through the settlement. People emerged from the shacks, all armed but curious. Dirk noticed a small child dancing on their toes, eager to see the newcomers. He smiled at her, earning a giggle. 

They reached the front doors of the building and a guard opened it for them, beckoning them inside. 

It was incredible.

The entire store seemed as if it had never closed, as if it had never seen the end of days. The shitty fluorescent lights still glowed over aisles of food and supplies and Dirk could even see the frozen section, humming away and full to the brim. 

“Dave how the hell did they keep thith plathe running?” Sollux asked in an incredulous whisper.

“I guess they found a generator,” Dave responded, pushing his glasses up to better look at the rows and rows of what looked like fresh produce. 

“It’s been like four weeks, this is incredible,” Sollux said.

They reached the back of the store where the office was, another armed guard standing near the door. The guard knocked on the door and opened it slightly, muttering to whomever was inside. 

Presently, after a few tense moments, the door opened again and a small man stepped out, short brown hair that was the same shade as his eyes which were warm and inviting. He wore a simple grey shirt and jeans with brown boots that came up to his ankles and a green bandana around his neck. He smiled at them and the entire group let out a collective sigh of relief. 

“Hello, I’m the Mayor,” he introduced, holding his hand out to no one in particular. Dirk took it, shaking briefly before he moved to the next party member until everyone had had a turn. “And who are all of you?”

“My name is Dirk, this is my brother Dave,” Dave nodded, “his partner Sollux, and our friends Roxy, Jane, and Jake.” As each person’s name was called, they raised their hand in greeting. “We’re passing through on our way to Gainesville.” The Mayor raised an eyebrow.

“What business do you have in Gainesville?” he asked.

“We’re uh,” Dirk stalled, “we’re running an errand. For an acquaintance.”

“Must be some acquaintance,” the Mayor chuckled, offering them seats on a nearby couch. Everyone sat down except for Jake, who stood behind the couch with his arms folded. “Since Gainesville is almost entirely under hostile control.” Dirk swallowed but said nothing.

“What do you mean, hostile control?” Jane asked lightly. 

“I mean the city is full of looters and vandals and, for lack of a better word, bandits,” the Mayor shrugged, “you couldn’t step foot in that city without getting shot at from all sides.” The group exchanged nervous glances. 

“But you lot look like you can handle yourselves,” the Mayor continued, smiling.

“Mister Mayor, sir?” Dave piped up, his voice unusually high. The Mayor turned his glance to Dave. “Have you noticed or heard of any, um,” he paused, unsure of what exactly to call them, “things? Roaming around?” The Mayor chuckled again.

“You’ll have to be more specific, friend,” he said. Dave wondered what other creatures could possibly be roaming around.

“They look and act like zombies,” Dirk supplied, aware of how silly he sounded. The smile fell off of the Mayor’s face. 

“Where did you see them?” he asked. 

“Just outside of Palatka, near the St. Johns River.”

“So not that far then?” the Mayor said, sighing a little, “good, that’s good. We were worried they were everywhere.”

“There’s nothing that says they aren’t,” Dirk said. 

“Unfortunately.”

“So you don’t know what they are?” Roxy asked. The Mayor shook his head.

“I’m afraid we don’t know any more than you do,” he said sadly, “other than they appeared about a week ago from the river. We eliminated around twenty or so that first day but since then, we’ve only ever seen them in packs of three to four.” 

Now that the party had a pseudo-connection with the outside world, it was difficult to keep all their questions to themselves. Finally, Roxy asked the question they all wanted the answer to but didn’t want to ask about.

“Mister Mayor do you know what happened?”

The group looked expectantly towards the Mayor, who shifted uncomfortably. 

“There have been many stories on the radio for the past few weeks,” he began, “but they all conflict. Did you ever play Telephone in kindergarten? Well that’s sort of how this is. It seems as if the satellites that orbit Earth have been compromised in some way. Anything that uses those satellites is currently out of commission, but I’m sure you all knew that.” He paused for a moment and grabbed a bottle of water from somewhere next to his couch.

“It seems the general consensus is that several volcanos around Earth erupted,” he said, “although why we haven’t seen ash or a volcanic winter is beyond me. A massive tectonic shift would explain why our great state is now severed straight down the middle.”

“Is there anywhere else in the states that’s like that?” Roxy asked.

“Well it seems to be certain that the West Coast is completely uninhabitable,” he said sadly, completely aware of the heartbroken look on Roxy’s face at the news, “and that the majority of the Western United States is covered in ash and debris.” The party grew solemn.

“So it was the Yellowstone volcano?” Dirk finally asked.

“Seems likely,” the Mayor answered, “it would explain why it’s unseasonably hot here, but the lack of volcanic ash is strange.”

“Well there was that huge rainstorm when, when everything happened,” Jane said.

“Yeah, she’s right,” Dave chimed in, “I had to postpone leaving because it was raining so goddamn hard.” The Mayor shrugged.

“Whatever the reason,” he sighed, “it doesn’t matter how it came to be, just that it did and now we have to deal with it.” The party nodded. 

“Ah!” the Mayor exclaimed, looking at his watch, “it’s getting late. Why don’t you and your party stay here for the night and we’ll stock you up with supplies before you head to your destination tomorrow morning?”

“That’s incredibly generous, Mayor,” Dirk said, “we would be eternally grateful.” 

The rest of the night passed quickly, easily one of the funnest nights that the party had experienced since the Day. Even Dirk forgot his annoyance with Jake as they all sat around with the Mayor playing cards. Roxy won two cartons of cigarettes off of one guy who then won two cases of beer off of her, so everything was even. 

It had been a long time since Dirk had been able to relax. There were armed guards stationed out of the building he was sleeping in, there was air conditioning, and his stomach was uncomfortably full of food. 

Jane, who finally had access to a working kitchen and decent ingredients, had prepared them all an actual dinner with actual meat and fresh vegetables. The table was silent as they ate, which Jane took as the highest compliment. 

They each more or less had their own rooms to sleep in, although they doubled up anyways out of habit. Roxy and Jane retired first, then Dirk and Jake, although Dirk didn’t look too happy about it. Dave and Sollux sat for a little longer out in the common area, watching the group of settlers trickle out into their respective huts.

“What if we jutht stayed here,” Sollux mused as he curled up into Dave’s side, “we have food, water, we could actually contribute.” Dave smiled.

“This isn’t our home, Sol,” he said, kissing the top of Sollux’s head and breathing in. 

“Then what is our home?” he asked. 

“We’ll know when we find it.”

They both sat there for a while before Dave yawned and stood up. 

“I’m heading to bed, you coming?” he asked.

“I’m going to stay out here a while is that okay?” Sollux said, sitting up on the couch and stretching his legs.

“Of course it is,” Dave leaned down and kissed his boyfriend on the forehead, “try and get some sleep though, we have a possibly deadly day ahead of us tomorrow.”

“Oh it’s okay, I can’t die,” Sollux assured him.

“Ah,” Dave laughed, “then nevermind.” 

He retreated to his room and Sollux was left to his own devices for at least a few minutes. He almost didn’t hear the hushed arguing coming from behind him until he heard a door slam and angry footsteps approaching. Sollux turned around to see Dirk striding towards him, stopping when he saw Sollux sitting on the couch.

“Ah,” he said, slowing his pace, “I didn’t think anyone was still awake.”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Sollux explained, moving over on the couch and inviting Dirk to sit with him. 

“You’d think we’d all be able to sleep in a place like this,” Dirk laughed, sitting next to Sollux and putting his feet up on the table in front of him. Sollux fidgeted with the hem of his shirt before deciding that it was silly to pretend that he didn’t hear an argument. 

“Everything okay with you?” he inquired as politely as he could. Dirk put on a sad smile and looked over at him. Sollux found himself rather short of breath again at the sight of Dirk’s face now so close to him. The resemblance to his brother at this distance was frightening, although at this distance, Sollux could also pick out the ways he was vastly different. 

Dirk turned his gaze to the ceiling for a few moments before deciding that he needed to talk to at least one person about his problems, else they form a giant pit inside his soul and devour every other thing about him. Dirk’s main problem was that his emotions burned too bright once, a fiery star inside his very being. As with all intense, bright stars, he felt too much and it had caved in, collapsed in on itself and turned into a black hole. Dirk let out a wry laugh at the simile. 

“I have no idea what to do about Jake,” he said finally, keeping his eyes fixed on the ceiling which was fine with Sollux, because now he could stare and not feel awkward. He went to say something but was honestly at a loss.

“I’m sorry, Dirk,” he offered, turning slightly on the couch and pulling his legs under him, “I wish I could offer you some kind of advice.” Dirk waved a hand.

“There’s not much advice to give,” he sighed, “I’ll just have to deal with him for the rest of my life.” He paused and cocked his head. “Which might only be another day or so.” Sollux chuckled grimly.

“You know what we were fighting about?” Dirk said after a few minutes of silence and Sollux shook his head. Dirk snorted and crossed the room, grabbing two beers out of the small cooler and handing one to Sollux before sitting down, cracking his own open. 

“He was upset with me for always sleeping closer to the door,” Dirk sighed, taking a long dram. 

“That seems,” Sollux paused and decided that they were good enough friends now right? “That seems really fucking silly.” Dirk laughed in appreciation.

“You know if it wasn’t the goddamn end of the world I’d probably look past it,” Dirk said, “the whole ‘yeah this argument is silly but at least there are good parts about life that can distract me from how fucking obnoxious my significant other is’ thing doesn’t really work when there are no good parts about life anymore.” 

“Hey that’s not true,” Sollux nudged him while drinking half of his beer in one go, “you have Roxy who is amazing, and you have Dave who is really happy to be reunited with you again.” He stopped himself for a moment. “And you have me, but I’m not sure how much stock you put in that because you just met me. I could be a horrible asshole.”

But Sollux wasn’t a horrible asshole. In fact, Dirk thought to himself while downing the rest of his beer (which was supposed to last longer than 6 minutes, come on man), he had warmed up to Sollux frighteningly fast. Even with Roxy, the most personal thing Dirk had divulged was how much he hated those shitty pepperoni sticks for at least 5 months. It had been more or less a week and Dirk was spilling how he /felt/ about other people to what amounted to be a stranger? Unfathomable. 

Still, it was almost as if he couldn’t help it. Sollux was a dull ball of light that struggled to penetrate the darkness of the world seemingly against his own better judgement, he was an angry little muffin that so desperately wanted to hate the entire world for what it had done but couldn’t because he was so in love with it. Never had Dirk met someone so strikingly polarized. 

“Sol what’d you do before this,” Dirk asked, grabbing more beer for them. 

“I was a software engineer,” he responded, nodding his thanks for the drink. 

The sun had risen before either of them stopped talking.


End file.
